“Red” Did It Produce A Win-Win?
03.09.07 - 04:49pm
The RED campaign, which was launched last year to fight aids in Africa was supposed to be a great way to promote the charity and help it. Apple, Gap and Motorola spent over $100 million endorsing their products proudly lined up behind the charity. Yet while their products sold well and they made a hefty profit the charity was given a paltry $18 million, not even coming close to the $100 million spent endorsing it.
This at least was Advertising Age’s point of view regarding the campaign. Bono - who launched RED has a different view.
In a series of open letters to Advertising Age’s publication, Bono has fought back angrily saying that RED was not a failure but rather diverted marketing dollars, that the companies would have spent anyway and turned that marketing into a cause, as well as educating people on the extent of the need in Africa.
“We were able to divert existing marketing dollars for RED,” Bobby Shriver, Red’s chief executive said. “The companies have erected signs in stores and billboards across America saying that Aids in Africa is a serious global problem.
Points were also raised that Advertising Age, along with being wrong about how much money was raised as it was $25 million not $18 million, had no actual source for the $100 million it says was spent on advertising. A source for RED said, “Bono’s RED campaign didn’t spend anything on marketing. The companies they work with spent a few million each. The Gap spent $7.8 million. The $100 million is a phantom number Ad Age pulled out of thin air. It’s off by tens of millions of dollars.”
The RED source continued saying, “First of all, RED didn’t launch its products until mid-October. And they raised $25 million. Before that, the fund had taken in about $5 million over a four-year period. Before that, they had one T-shirt out and a pair of sunglasses.”
RED says that the campaign has raised awareness all across the world to the cause. Motorola has a RED Phone, Apple a RED Nano, Converse has RED All star sneakers and Gap a full line of RED clothing. Along with these items they say many have given more to charity as their eyes have been opened to the cause.
Due to the campaign and pressure given, along with a strong personal backing from President George Bush, the anti-Aids charity was also awarded a record $724 million by the Gobal Fund for 2007.
While Advertising Age may say that people should just “donate” the money and buy less crap, it is something that few ever actually do. What RED accomplished was taking those who were already buying a Nano or phone, and talking them into buying a RED Nano or RED Motorola instead, through advertising, thus supporting both product and cause.
RED was created to be a win-win and as the charity was given 20 million more than the last five years combined, as well as more awareness than their has ever been, it would seem that it was just that. No matter how much was spent on marketing the cause, that same money would have been spent solely marketing the products without the cause or money given had it not been for Bono’s RED charity campaign.
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