How Beneficial Was the (RED) Campaign?

For those that might remember opinions I have previously stated about Bono & the RED campaign, or additional thoughts I expressed, you might be interested in an article that a friend directed me to this afternoon:

Costly Red Campaign Reaps Meager $18 Million

It's been a year since the first Red T-shirts hit Gap shelves in London, and a parade of celebrity-splashed events has followed: Steven Spielberg smiling down from billboards in San Francisco; Christy Turlington striking a yoga pose in a New Yorker ad; Bono cruising Chicago's Michigan Avenue with Oprah Winfrey, eagerly snapping up Red products; Chris Rock appearing in Motorola TV spots ("Use Red, nobody's dead"); and the Red room at the Grammy Awards. So you'd expect the money raised to be, well, big, right? Maybe $50 million, or even $100 million.

Try again: The tally raised worldwide is $18 million.

[...]

But is the rise of philanthropic fashionistas decked out in Red T-shirts and iPods really the best way to save a child dying of AIDS in Africa?

(read more)

The above article also links to buylesscrap.org, an organization that facilitates direct contributions to the Global Fund and other charitable organizations without the need to buy a celebrity branded product:

Join us in rejecting the ti(red) notion that shopping is a reasonable response to human suffering

Technorati Tags: Africa, Bono, consumerism, RED

Comments

[Pete Williamson]

I'll admit, I'm surprised by the low number. thanks for following this up, Kev.

[Hunter Beaumont]

I was in The Gap a while back and noticed as I was checking out that you could buy a [red] button for $1 that said something like, "I'm fighting global poverty." And I thought, "So that's all you have to do to fight poverty? Buy a $1 button and you're entitled to tell the world you're fighting poverty? I should get Cawley one of these."

[Kevin Cawley]

I saw those $1 buttons as well.

Furthermore, unless I'm mistaken, I've seen several Washington state cell phone providers offering free RED RAZR's as part of promo deals. It's better than $1 brother, you can fight poverty, or at least appear to do so, by sheer virtue of signing up for a new cell phone plan.

[Caleb Land]

Good point. 18 million is 18 million, but we all know this was as much about saving kids in Africa as wearing Livestrong bracelets was about finding a cure for cancer. It takes more than $1 and a fashion statement. It takes a life change.

[Kevin Cawley]

Caleb-- I'm trying to understand your "but," particularly given the fact that you're making my point?