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26 September 2007 - Maria Sharapova, United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador, has invited NBA star LeBron James to "Team Up Against Poverty" on a new UNDP advertisement to garner support for achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals.

LeBron James, photographer Patrick Demarchelier and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Maria Sharapova photo by Joshua Lott

Sharapova’s work with UNDP  includes promoting international efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Adopted by 189 countries in 2000, the Goals are clear, time-bound targets for achieving measurable improvements in the lives of the world’s poorest people. They aim at eradicating poverty, putting children in schools, promoting women’s rights, fighting killer diseases, and providing access to safe drinking water. UNDP coordinates global and national efforts to reach these Goals.

This ad campaign revolves around the concept of "Teaming Up Against Poverty" to achieve the MDG’s.  The advertisements  features celebrities from the world of sports, arts, fashion or business portrayed in teams of two by the world’s greatest professional photographers.

Fifty  celebrities, including UNDP Goodwill Ambassadors and soccer greats Ronaldo and Zidane, have agreed to participate in the initiative to promote the MDG’s and are undertaking specific anti-poverty activities.

The advertisements have been produced thanks to  photographers, celebrities and advertising agencies who are donating their time and talent for the fight against poverty. Hundreds of newspapers and magazines have already published these advertisements worldwide.

World-renowned photographers who have joined  the campaign  include Dominique Issermann, Peter Lindbergh, Sarah Moon, Satoshi Saikusa, Christian Moser, Ferdinando Scianna, Javier Vallhonrat, the late Jeanloup Sieff and many others, including Sebastiao Salgado.

More than 200 media outlets -- including Il Corriere della Sera, La Stampa (Italy); Le Monde, Libération, La Tribune (France);  Le Temps (Switzerland); El País, El Mundo  (Spain);  De Standaard (The Netherlands); Le Soir (Belgium); General-Anzeiger, Tagesanzeiger (Germany); The Economist, The Financial Times  (UK);  Newsweek International and The International Herald Tribune -- have offered full page space to publish the advertisements.
 
Maria Sharapova and LeBron James were photographed by top fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier who has donated his talent for this new photo that will launch a news series of advertisements to promote the MDG’s.

The London-based agency Leagas Delaney will produce the advertisement. 

Maria Sharapova, has been appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme in February 2007. Sharapova’s work with UNDP includes rallying support for the global campaign against poverty and promoting international efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. She has made a contribution of 100,000 US dollars to eight youth-oriented projects in rural communities in Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine that still suffer the after-effects of the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. Sharapova’s donation funded projects to improve computer access, to promote ecological awareness, and restoring sports facilities and hospitals in the three countries most affected by Chernobyl. These projects complement a broad portfolio of UN work helping Chernobyl-affected communities regain a sense of self-sufficiency, build new livelihoods, and bring a once-blighted region back to life.