(RED) shite
So by now you've seen the hot, red iPods and the GAP all resplendent with red clothing (and the other UK or American brands) selling "(RED)" branded products.
If you need a new t-shirt at GAP, go ahead and buy the red one and if you were about to buy a new iPod, by all means get the red one, but if you're thinking to buy the products 'cause x percent goes to a charity, can I encourage you to instead to look at the price of such items, then don't buy them, and then send the entire amount not used to buy the product to an AIDS charity. That way 100% of your purchase goes to the cause. A good cause -- aimed at the same one the (RED) thing is meant to support: AIDS in Africa -- is the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which can be found (with an easy to find banner to take you to where you can contribute) at
http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/
Sure (RED) will produce $ for charity and that's very good. But it's also an incredible marketing campaign that will do, as someone said this week (sorry forget who--think it was Lewis himself), a hell of a lot more for the manufacturers than it will for those suffering from AIDS in Africa.
If you need a new t-shirt at GAP, go ahead and buy the red one and if you were about to buy a new iPod, by all means get the red one, but if you're thinking to buy the products 'cause x percent goes to a charity, can I encourage you to instead to look at the price of such items, then don't buy them, and then send the entire amount not used to buy the product to an AIDS charity. That way 100% of your purchase goes to the cause. A good cause -- aimed at the same one the (RED) thing is meant to support: AIDS in Africa -- is the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which can be found (with an easy to find banner to take you to where you can contribute) at
http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/
Sure (RED) will produce $ for charity and that's very good. But it's also an incredible marketing campaign that will do, as someone said this week (sorry forget who--think it was Lewis himself), a hell of a lot more for the manufacturers than it will for those suffering from AIDS in Africa.
posted by Heipel at
7:39 PM
5 Comments:
it sounds really good..
and i like red..haha...
goody... :)
Yah I had the same thought when they were reporting/commenting on it on CBC radio. The guy kept saying how it wasn't charity, it was business. And Eric and I turned to each other and wondered how that could be.
Like you say, it's not a business, it's GAP or Apple giving (if you read carefully) "SOME of the profit..." so not only is it that not all the money you pay is going, but not even all the profit. so you buy a thirty dollar t-shirt, they keep $5 and they give $5 to wherever.
That's ass. Either give the $30 to charity if you want to help, or if you don't need a tshirt, then give $10 directly. you've already doubled the amount they've gotten, without giving some big company the joy of looking good.
Stephen Lewis makes me proud. His wife, Michele Landsberg, is pretty cool too.
I'm forwarding your blog comment about the new red ipods to my daughter. She mentioned them yesterday. She already has an ipod which works just fine (says her mother). She didn't mention the Apple contribution part.
I'm hoping, in a reverse-sideways psychology, the scoff of your article (to Apple, GAP, etc.), will quell her consumer itch.
I guess she'll also see my comment... cut 'n paste methinks.
yah the funny thing Tish, is that I wear GAP and I love Apple... but this is crass and I wish they would not do it.
I think we should get t-shirts made that say "I have an old iPod AND the satisfaction of knowing that I gave $100 to The Stephen Foundation"
Tish, dahrlink! Please do share your daughter's response to your trying to derail her consumer impulses :)
And Mark, I love the t-shirt idea.
And Joon, I'll kick your consumerist ass -GRIN-
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