American Express Donates $10,000 to the Surfrider Foundation through project BLUE Partnership

January 26, 2010 – San Clemente, CA: project BLUE, the surf industry initiative where leading brands support the non-profit Surfrider Foundation through a co-branded and limited edition product line, is excited to announce that American Express has donated $10,000 to Surfrider as a part of their role in supporting project BLUE.

American Express joined project BLUE as the program’s first ever payments partner just before the 2009 holiday shopping season. As part of their initial involvement, American Express assisted in the re-launch of project BLUE’s “All I want for the holidays is a clean ocean,” e-card campaign. The campaign was promoted through traditional and social media channels, including a Twitter campaign, Facebook contest involving new Nixon watches and headphones and an online advertising buy on Surfline and SURF.

“It’s important for everyone to make conscious decisions about the environment in their daily lives and that includes purchasing decisions, which is why we are proud to support project BLUE,” said Angel Maroto, vice president of the U.S. western region, American Express Merchant Services. “By supporting the ‘All I want…’ project BLUE campaign, we helped our cardmembers contribute to the preservation of one of our greatest natural resources.”

While the project BLUE product line is constantly evolving, it presently includes a range of organic cotton t-shirts, polarized sunglasses, surf watches, in addition to a selection of boardshorts, surf traction accessories, wetsuits and backpacks all made from made from recycled materials.

More information can be found on project BLUE at the following locations:

Official Site: www.betruetoblue.com

Facebook: www.tinyurl.com/projblueFB

Twitter: www.twitter.com/betruetoblue

About project BLUE

project BLUE is an unprecedented collaboration of leading and competitive brands in the multi-billion dollar surf industry. Each of the project BLUE product partners has created special edition merchandise specifically for the initiative, with a portion of the proceeds from each sale going towards the non-profit Surfrider Foundation. Billabong, DAKINE, Electric, Famous Wax, Nixon and O’Neill have all pledged their long-term support for the program.

project BLUE products can be found worldwide at leading surf retailers and online at www.Swell.com. More information on project BLUE and its partners can be found at www.betruetoblue.com or by following it on Twitter @betruetoblue.

About The Surfrider Foundation

The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit grassroots environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world’s oceans, waves and beaches. Now in its 25th year, the Surfrider Foundation has grown from a small group of dedicated surfers in Malibu, California to a global movement made up of over 50,000 members and 90 chapters worldwide. For more information visit us at www.surfrider.org.

About American Express

Merchant Services is the merchant network of American Express, which acquires and maintains relationships with millions of merchants around the globe, which welcome American Express-branded Cards. American Express Company is a leading global payments, network, travel and banking company founded in 1850.