Today's Wall Street Journal has a useful article about a new social networking initiative from the clothing manufacturer Phillips-Van Heusen on behalf of its Arrow brand men's shirts. Men's shirts? I'm all for companies taking a more social and community approach to marketing, but is this, as a few ad agency execs cited in the article suggest, a case of a fad-chasing jump onto an overcrowded bandwagon?

At first glance, it's an interesting approach. Trying for a strong emotional connection, the initiative focuses on immigration stories and attempts to build support for preserving Ellis Island, the famous gateway to America for millions of 19th and 20th century immigrants. The core of the effort is the We Are Ellis Island website, stocked with video stories from celebrities, background information on the Save Ellis Island campaign, and ways to get involved, including forwarding the site to friends, donating money (of course), and sharing your own stories.

It's not a serious social networking site when compared Facebook or MySpace or others that my teen daughter and her cohort spend hours on each week. It's much more a traditional website with modest capacity for viewer interaction. It also seems a bit of a stretch for a shirt company, and the links to Arrow apparel on the site look to me a bit too prominent.

On the other hand, cause-related marketing does often succeed, and the effort plays off Arrow's "Authentic American Style" branding, so there is a connection. Arrow is launching a $20 million ad campaign highlighting immigrant stories and Ellis Island to help drive traffic to the site which certainly could help (although many of most popular social sites grew virally with little or no promotional push). And of course user-generated video is all the rage these days, so it's quite possible that many people will indeed upload their own stories.

Overall, I think the site just might connect. Execution is the main factor, and it's too soon to tell how the site managers will sustain, adapt, and improve the effort over time -- as inevitably they must. But immigration is a huge issue these days, and Arrow may benefit from its positive, albeit nostalgic approach. The emotional tie is a strong one for millions of Americans, and video stories are a nice anchor for the site. Ultimately, as Michael Kelly, PVH executive vice president for marketing, states: "If you've got good content, people come."