Buy a red T-shirt to fight AIDS. But does it really help?
Companies spent $1.34 billion on 'cause-related marketing' last year in the US, but critics cite a lack of transparency.
from the March 12, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 4
RED's partnerships
(RED) aims to provide long-term support to The Global Fund through the sale of products carrying the (RED) brand. Apple sells a (RED) iPod, American Express offers a (RED) credit card, and Gap has an entire line of (RED) clothing and accessories.
The companies get some of the profits, and the chance to be tied to a cause as well as the celebrities behind it, including Oprah Winfrey, director Steven Spielberg, and photographer Annie Leibovitz. In exchange, (RED) gets these companies to market the cause and the products, and wins a share of the proceeds for The Global Fund.
"We hijacked marketing budgets that would normally have gone for good products, but now they're going for good products that will also bring money into Africa," says Tamsin Smith, president of (RED). "There are 10 miles of Gap windows in the United States. And for many weeks [those displays] were talking about AIDS in Africa."
Splashy advertising in top cities and publications has added to the campaign's impact – and raised some eyebrows. Last week, an Advertising Age article unfavorably contrasted the amount of money raised for Africa against "estimates as high as $100 million" spent by the companies on marketing.
(RED) says no dollar figure can really be placed on raising awareness about the 5,500 people dying of AIDS each day in Africa. It also rejects the $100 million figure as too high by tens of millions of dollars.
The person who believes he's the source of that number says it was merely an educated guess. "I floated something that has become truth that's not truth," says Ben Davis, head of a San Francisco-based communications firm.
He is also a leader of a consumer watchdog group, which takes issue with the consumption-driven approach of campaigns like (RED). "I would look forward to being corrected by people who are in a position to provide a real answer," says Mr. Davis.
But the inability to obtain some numbers troubles him. "The good folks at (RED) should live by the same standards of transparency that other folks who deal with donated money have to live by," says Davis.
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