Seeing RED: Bono's (RED) Campaign
Bono, the lead singer for the world-renowned Irish band U2 has recently launched the American version of his RED campaign. The Nobel Prize nominated rock singer has been involved with humanitarian work for the past twenty years, taking part in the Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8 projects. (PROJECT) RED was started by Bono and Bobby Shriver of the Debt Aids Trade in Africa organization. Its goal is to raise funds for the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The (PROJECT) RED brand is licensed to various big-name corporations as their global partners. Such brands include Apple, Converse, American Eagle, Motorola, Gap and Giorgio Armani. Using this logo, each company is creating a product with the RED logo. These manufactures have pledged a percentage of the profits from sales of these products to AIDS programs financed by the Global Fund. The (PROJECT) RED brand has already raised about $10-million since its launch early last year.
The Gap is selling a new line of RED t-shirts made in the African country of Lesotho from African-grown cotton with half of the profits going towards AIDS organizations supporting women and children. If you happened to walk into The Gap during the weekend of October 13th, you may have noticed the many signs for RED and the flyers saying that a t-shirt can change the world. Gap was also selling cookies and cupcakes bake sale-style with 100% of the profits going towards AIDS research as well as red rubber bracelets similar to the Livestrong bracelets which had been popular a couple years ago.
On May 15, 2006, Motorola as (PROJECT) RED´s exclusive wireless partner released a new special edition (PROJECT) RED Motorola SLVR cellular phone alongside its RED brand Motorola RAZR. Being launched in the U.S. in October, the new product is only receiving a two-week promotional period, though it has been highly publicized in Britain. From the profit per phone, up to $17 goes towards AIDS
relief. Despite the fact that these phones are merely red–coloured versions of Motorola´s old cellular phone models, they sell for a $30 premium in comparison to older models and are being advertised as
designed to eliminate AIDS in Africaaccording to the Motorola website. U.S. Cellular COO Jay Ellison says,
It´s a new colour, there is going to be strong demand for that colour.So, if the idea of saving a child in Africa suffering from AIDS doesn´t work to promote sales, it seems the new colour of the product will.
Essentially, with Bono´s RED campaign companies are incorporating consumerism with humanitarianism. In today´s society, we are very aware of the low quality of life and the AIDS epidemic in Third World countries, yet it appears that there isn´t a great deal we can do about it from so far away. However, with RED, corporations are providing people with an opportunity to get involved by simply buying a t–shirt, cupcake, cell phone, or other material item. (PROJECT) RED is aimed at the conscience consumer. In a statement about the campaign, Bono said, "The idea is simple, the products are sexy and people live instead of die." I find it interesting that he is able to put this so simply. In actuality, the world doesn´t seem to work quite so easily — "Buy a t-shirt and congratulations, you just saved a life!" In my opinion, it seems that this campaign may just be taking advantage of the consumer conscience, making people feel guilty about the AIDS epidemic in Africa so that they will buy a product they do not necessarily need. To me personally, it seems morally wrong for these big corporations to use AIDS as an added incentive for consumers to purchase their products.
posted by maeganfidelino @ 15.10.06
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