Yoko Ono suggests charity promotes the Lennon brand

Pepsi are currently running a charity campaign in the US. Causes looking for funding can bid, encourage people to vote for them, and if they're at the top of the poll at the end of the month, the charity gets the cash.

It's perhaps a bit unfortunate that Pepsi decide to turn their generosity into a gameshow, but for small charities, it's an extra avenue of potential funds so it isn't all bad.

But hang about: what's this?

YOKO ONO is urging JOHN LENNON fans to celebrate the late BEATLES star's 70th birthday by voting for his Educational Tour Bus to win a $250,000 (£156,250) charity grant.

The mobile recording and multimedia studio enables youngsters in the U.S. to record their own music, with sound engineers on hand to help students produce projects.

Ono wants to take the initiative global to coincide with what would have been Lennon's 70th birthday in October - and she's eyeing a cash sum from the latest Pepsi Refresh Celebrity Challenge.

So this bus - splattered with the Lennon brand, you'll notice - needs less than £200,000 to get on the road.

Couldn't Ono write a cheque for that without even breaking a sweat, instead of throwing the bus into a battle for a limited pot of cash against other groups who can't draw on the name of a dead pop star to push their cause? It's a bit like staging a Beatles gig in the same village at the same time as the fete to raise funds for the new Church roof, surely?

[If you want to vote for someone, why not vote for Denver's splendid Center For Hearing, Speech and Language's literacy project?]