March 14, 2007

Pro (RED) Marketing Week Article Fails To Account For Missing Millions

An article in leading European marketing magazine Marketing Week tries to take a balanced view of the (RED) controversy. Marketing Week says:

RED claims the money it has raised for the Global Fund will put 160,000 Africans on life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and feed and educate orphans in Swaziland. It is statistics such as these that show the power of cause-related marketing to disarm critics and leave them spluttering. After all, who would be willing to tell a group of Africans that they cannot have the anti-retroviral drugs they need because the manner of raising the funds seems morally questionable?

Yes, but if (RED) sold at least 5 licenses to brands for $10 million each , how did they only raise $20 million for charity? Imagine how many Africans would be saved then.

The article points to the Red Nose Charity as proof that mixing brands with charities can work. They omit to point out that in 2005, £35m was raised for charity in one night while (RED) earned less than £10m in a year.

The more people we talk to, the more we hear about the distrust of the (RED) brand. What’s even more interesting is that hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to tell us how cool (RED) is, but not a penny has been spent defending the rising criticism of it.

Marketing Week

Article categories: Ethical Consumerism, Finance & Money, Our Terms Not Yours