Are You Red?

Every year 3 million people die from AIDS. Friday, December 1st was World AIDS Day. There is a huge inspi(red) campaign right now created by Bono and Bobby Shriver trying to support awareness and raise money for better treatment of AIDS in Africa. I had heard about it some, (you may have seen some of the commercials) but I really started looking into it on Friday when Google had a small red ribbon on it's website. When you clicked on it, you were redirected to the website for campaign red. You find out how far the campaign stretches and all the connections they made so far. The idea behind the campaign is to purchase red products because they are desi(red). When you buy a red product at no additional cost to the consumer, the red company will then donate some of its profits to buy and distribute antiviral medicine for the victims in Africa. The hope is that when consumers need a product, and it is offered in red, they will choose the red product over another for the sake of doing something good, especially since it comes at no extra cost to them. Then soon other companies will follow suit. They will become red, because it makes good business sense to compete with current red companies. Some of the products currently available are credit cards, watches, and phones. Apple recently introduced their newest edition to the i-Pod family. Apple has gone red; they are offering the 4GB and 8GB Nano in Red. Check out all the products that support red here. Myspace and AIM are also supporting Red; the media is an important link to awareness. By donating space on their websites they raise visibility and interest in the campaign. The magazine Dazed and Confused, which I recently wrote a post about, is also sponsoring Red by encouraging readers to add photos and videos that show their red support. Not all products actually have to physically be the color red to support the cause, but many are offered that way. The campaign doesn't want it to be about buying a watch to purposely support red. The idea is that if you need a watch and you will hopefully buy the red watch. They even assume many people will buy a red product without even realizing or knowing what red is. With the profits from the first six weeks of the campaign, they can provide 40,000 people with ARV treatments for a year. You can follow up on this even more by going to their blog. They have been writing about the progress and companies who are starting support the cause. You to the power of red, that's the big idea. Check it out!