MINI Sponsors Life Ball AIDS Charity with One of a Kind

MINI has commissioned another "one-of-a-kind" for the 2007 Life Ball AIDS benefit. Famous fashion photographer Mario Testino has taken a new Astro Black MINI and decorated it with a photo of exploding fireworks against a night sky accented with gold glitter. Testino states the artwork, titled "Celebration of Life", is a tribute to individuals who dedicate themselves to helping the less fortunate and ill.

In addition to the fireworks decoration, chrome pieces such as the grille, wheels and door handles have undergone a "sophisticated" process to give a shiny black chrome appearance, according to the press release. However, it simply looks like the pieces were either powder-coated or painted black with a lot of layers of clearcoat to make it very shiny.

The one-off MINI will be auctioned globally on www.ebay.at from May 31 to June10, 2007 and all proceeds will go to the Life Ball charity.

MINI has been sponsoring the Life Ball, which is Europe's largest AIDS benefit, since 2003. In 2006, a MINI Cabrio was designed by clothing brand DIESEL which fetched 38,150 Euro at auction. But that's chump change compared to Italian fashion designer Donatella Versace's MINI Cabrio in 2005 which earned 120,150 Euro.

WCF verdict: Testino should stick to 2-dimensional surfaces