Brand Aid: Shopping Well to Save the World

Product RED, co-founded by Bono, has combined charitable giving and conspicuous consumption on a scale and with a reach never before seen. Consumers can confront AIDS in Africa simply by buying a shirt. But, as Richey and Ponte argue in their meticulously researched polemic, the devil resides in the details. By simplifying the transaction (one dollar spent equals a certain number of pills), RED effectively dodges thornier issues, such as the need for lifelong treatment or the delivery of medicine to "resource-poor settings" that lack necessary refrigeration. Participating companies still profit, of course; though RED had contributed only about 1% of the $11.8 billion disbursed to parent charity The Global Fund by late 2008, its high visibility and "cool quotient" have helped keep it top-of-mind for consumers. It has also succeeded by redefining the way brands, charities, and consumers interact, the authors argue. Their focus on RED at the exclusion of almost all others is equally illuminating and reductive; examination of other efforts, trends, or the efficacy of delivering aid feel cursory. Readers and academics interested in the ways corporate philanthropy is evolving will find this useful, as will armchair sociologists, but the relentless focus feels at times akin to a Senate hearing. (Mar.)