| (PRODUCT)RED is a campaign that links African charity fundraising to major international brands, harnessing consumerism and profit motive to create sustainable income for the United Nations’ Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Created by U2's Bono and Bobby Shriver (Chairman of Debt, Aid, Trade, Africa), the campaign recruits companies to create and sell products for the (RED) brand, with Global Fund getting 10 to 50 per cent of gross profits.
Of course, corporate acts of charity are nothing new (last year alone, companies spent $1.11 billion aligning themselves with non-profits), especially in the fashion world. The grandmammy of Canadian corporate glamour-giving is probably MAC cosmetics, whose VIVA GLAM lipstick collection has funnelled 100 per cent of its profits to AIDS charities since first vamping onto the scene in 1994. More recently, cancer-surviving cyclist Lance Armstrong's yellow LIVESTRONG bracelet became the accessory-of-the-moment, begetting copycat rubber bracelets in a variety of colours and causes and putting a new shine on Nike’s corporate image.
What makes the (RED) campaign different from most such schemes is its insistence on profitability for both parties. According to global fund director Richard Feachem, "I could go… begging… every year to a major corporation and say 'give me some money,' and they might give me a one-off contribution, but it wouldn't be large and it wouldn't be sustainable. (RED) is intrinsically sustainable because (RED) is good for the companies."
This move away from pure giving is seen even on the local level. According to Aids Calgary Director Sue Cress, "The day is over when we could approach an organization without having a detailed explanation of how their brand will be present and recognized at our event."
Such sponsorships help companies trying to tap the elusive youth market. Cress recalls a conversation with the "RBC Foundation's community investment people: they wanted to reach out to youth because they were the next generation of employees, and a healthy, vibrant community makes for healthy, vibrant employees."
Not to mention healthy, vibrant customers. According to University of Calgary Marketing Professor Kate White, Generation Y is a notoriously difficult market to tap as they are inundated with advertisements and extremely skeptical of traditional print media and television advertising. "Partnerships are a more cost-effective way to create hype," says White, (so) corporations look for charities that are a good fit. They get the tax receipt and some positive press."
That profile-raising works both ways. Everything that the Alberta Cancer Foundation's Linda Mickelson admires about the consciousness-raising power of the LIVESTRONG bracelets also applies to (RED) products: they're effective "because they're on the person, wherever they go... raising awareness. They open a conversation"
Meanwhile, the consumer gets the product they purchased, plus that warm, fuzzy, do-gooder feeling without actively doing a lot of good. Cress, however, doesn't see this as a huge problem. "It makes it easier to connect people to the issue, without them necessarily having a lot of knowledge."
Philanthropy based on greed and ease rather than principle may seem odd, but it's gaining ground; to date, (PRODUCT)RED's roster also includes Apple, Armani, American Express, Converse and Motorola. However, there may be no need to worry about the disconnection of charity from conviction: after its first few days of sales, the Chinook Centre Gap was sold out of the INSPRI(RED) tee. What had been left behind by the weekend hordes was a sad selection of wilted shirts bearing inscriptions of BO(RED) and HAMME(RED). Apparently, when we wear our hearts on our sleeves, we like them to have heart. |
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