The RED Campaign – U2's Bono harnesses big business
By Hamish Gregor
"Picture this – a village where the disappearance of a whole generation has left children to bring up children," so says Bono, lead singer of the band U2, writing in The Independent newspaper on 16 May 2006.
Sadly, such a village could be located in almost developing country where human folly or natural disasters have taken their toll. It could be Somalia, for example, where many thousands of children have been orphaned by a war which, although it has only recently been making headlines around the world, has been raging for the last 16 years. If not for international aid, it could be Indonesia, where the 2004 tsunami killed 168,000 people and left one million homeless.
"I am a witness," Bono goes on to say in his article. "A witness to all these disasters – what can I do?" Bono first asked this question in 1983, when he joined an action committee to work on unemployment in his native Ireland. Since then, he has both sponsored and worked with humanitarian organisations in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The humanitarian causes he supports include gun control, debt relief in the developing world and AIDS. He has appeared in and organised numerous benefit concerts, such as Amnesty International's Conspiracy of Hope tour in 1986 and the various Live Aid and Band Aid projects in the 1980s and 1990s.
(PRODUCT)RED (aka the RED Campaign) is an initiative launched by Bono in 2006. The aim of this campaign is to raise money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (aka the Global Fund or GFATM). The Global Fund is a partnership of governments, non-profit organisations and businesses. Since it began in 2002, the Global Fund has spent over US$7 billion on treating over 25 million sick people in 136 countries and has provided care and support for over one million orphans.
The RED Campaign is a crucial element in this effort. The RED Campaign harnesses big business and charity by offering the special brand name Global Fund (RED) to consumers who are interested in supporting humanitarian work. The(RED) brand is a range of merchandise and services which have one thing in common – a proportion of the profit made from them is donated to the Global Fund. (RED) products include tee-shirts, watches, MP3 players, mobile phones and credit cards. They are manufactured by international companies such as Armani, Motorola, Converse and American Express, and sold through normal retail channels and the web. For example in Australia, Motorola and Optus have joined the RED Campaign, and donate A$19.80 to the Global Fund for every (RED) mobile phone sold in this country. Similarly, for every (RED) iPod MP3 player sold in the US, US$10 goes to the Global Fund; and for every US$25 spent on downloads from iTunes, US$2.50 is donated.
One particular thing makes the RED Campaign stand out – it is potentially self-perpetuating. Normally, a fundraising campaign is a one-off event. Each campaign raises a certain amount of money, and the organisations which receive that money know that there will be no more until the next campaign. If a campaign occurs at an inappropriate time or if there are other campaigns running at the same time, revenues will be reduced by 'donor fatigue' which means that people's willingness to give declines every time they are asked for donations. This seriously hampers humanitarian efforts with the result that organisations are unable to make realistic long-term plans because they do not know how much money they will have. The RED Campaign addresses these problems by 'enlisting the force of enlightened self-interest' since it generates money for participating companies and these companies have a strong incentive to keep the RED Campaign going. This, in turn, means that the Global Fund is in a position to plan and budget effectively from year-to-year.
The RED Campaign has already gained substantial consumer acceptance. According to a survey conducted by a Sydney market research company in 2006, 72% of respondents reported that it was 'a fantastic idea'. The bottom line confirms this. For example, the RED Campaign raised over US$10 million in the UK alone between February and September of the same year.
In the Red Campaign, Bono has devised an innovative fund-raising model of elegant simplicity, and one which seems likely to be extremely successful.
More information
- Visit U2's official website.
- Find out more about the RED Campaign – read the RED Manifesto.
- Visit the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (aka the Global Fund or GFATM) website.
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