U2, Jay-Z, Coldplay, John Legend, Dixie Chicks, The Killers & Elton John, The Police & Elvis Costello, Death Cab for Cutie and Sheryl Crow are among the artists releasing exclusive songs today to celebrate the launch of (RED) Wire, a digital music magazine that debuts its first issue Dec. 10th. You can catch the new cuts and videos at red.msn.com.
The magazine features exclusive tracks from major label artists as well as cuts of new and emerging musicians and will integrate with social networking services to provide custom recommendations. Half of the $5 monthly fee goes directly to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa. (RED) Wire justifies its existence in a press release saying:
U2 frontman Bono started Product (RED) some 18 months ago, with Bobby Shriver, to ramp up donations to the Global Fund by enlisting companies to deliver a percentage of profits to the charity, in exchange for buying some good will by associating themselves with the organization. (For a fee, of course.)
Since its beginnings, RED had scrounged up $59 million dollars from corporations like Apple, Motorola, Dell, Gap, and American Express. As RED, and it's PR firm at Sunshine & Sachs, will helpfully remind you, the AIDS-happy Global Fund, started in 2002, received a paltry $5 million over five years in donations from private companies and individuals. But since RED got involved, that sum jumped to $59 million, with "$22.3 million has gone to Rwanda, $14.1 million to Swaziland and $10.5 million to Ghana, leaving $12 million to be disbursed," according to a letter sent to Jossip by Dr. Christoph Benn, the fund's director of external relations.
How, then, is Rush & Molloy able to report this morning – just one week after Dr. Benn issued us that statement – that RED is responsible not for $59 million in donations, but a full $100 million? CONTINUED »
Call us cynics, but we thought that Will.i.am Barack Obama video had all the appeal and sincerity of a Gap (RED) ad. But then we watched the John McCain version, we got the point.
We own a Product (RED) iPod Nano. It is shiny, and the red goes really well with a Nike Dri-FIT tee we wear to the gym a lot. We bought the RED iPod out of pure vanity, not to support HIV-positive children in Africa. Hopefully that pisses off Bono, because that was our secondary goal. He's just so smug about his philanthropy.
The U2 fontman's Product RED, which has enlisted corporate support from the likes of Dell, Motorola, Apple, and Armani, is, like any charity, deserving of accolades. Up to a point.
As with all philanthropic endeavors, many of the dollars coming in – in this case, from the sale of consumer goods – goes to overhead, and whatever is left over might wind up in the hands of the needy.
So despites the tens of thousands of RED products sold, a grand total of "just" $22 million $59 million has found its way to Africa so far. Okay, not exactly small change: In Rwanda, reports the NYT, contributions of $22 million have helped fund "33 testing and treatment centers, supplied medicine for more than 6,000 women to keep them from transmitting H.I.V. to their babies, and financed counseling and testing for thousands more patients."
But in March '07, AdAge reported RED companies spent $100 million in advertising, which yielded only $18 million for the charity. (RED countered by saying it spent $50 million on advertising, generating $25 million for the charity. Critics have called AdAge's report based mostly on conjecture, and we might have to agree with them.)
So how does all this money change hands? And is all the effort even worth it? CONTINUED »
