Sony Ericsson is embarking on a national campaign to collect 1 million digital photos of people smiling andraise P1 million for the United Nations Children’s Fund or Unicef. For each smile Sony Ericsson photographs of people who visit their booths in SM malls all over the country, P1 will go to Unicef.

The campaign is done in partnership with nine SM Malls that will also be holding a contest among themselves on who could gather the most smiles. SM Prime Holdings vice president Marissa Fernan, who is a bit of a gadget nerd herself, is confident of Cebu’s chances to win the contest among SM Malls. You have until the end of this month to go to the Spread the Smiles booth in SM Cebu and have yourself photographed there.

If you give a P20 donation, you will be given a Digiprint photo printout, a spot on the Smile Wall and a raffle ticket to win a Sony Ericsson C510 Cyber-shot phone.

SMILE SHUTTER. Vince dela Cruz, Sony Ericsson product marketing manager, demonstrates how smiling can trigger the shutter of Sony Ericsson’s Cyber-shot phones during the launch of its Spread the Smiles campaign in Cebu.

The campaign is a good showcase for Sony Ericsson’s Cyber-shot product line. You can fault Sony Ericsson for several things—from its lackluster smartphone offerings to its infuriating connectors for its accessories—but when it comes to imaging, Sony Ericsson is among the mobile phone leaders.

The Spread the Smiles campaign quickly takes photos of smiles of mallgoers through the Smile Shutter function of Sony Ericsson’s Cybershot phones C510 and C905. The Smile Shutter is a nifty piece of technology that detects smiles of people in camera range and then takes photos.

By using a cameraphone with Smile Shutter, taking a photo of yourself just became easier. You no longer have to master that awkward twisting of the unit to put yourself into frame and then clicking on the camera button to take the photo. With Smile Shutter, you just have to smile to trigger the camera.

Of the units being showcased in the campaign, the C905 is the more formidable device. It is a whopping 8.1-megapixel phone with Xenon flash, auto focus with face detection, and image stabilizer.

Apart from its imaging capabilities, the C905 comes with what are now standard features of high-end mobile phones—Wi-Fi and HSPA connectivity, a built-in email client and global positioning system (GPS).

With GPS, you can geo-tag photos and use Wayfinder Navigator (the unit comes with a trial version) or Google Maps.