“Here we are, fat cats in the snow, – I should say winners in the snow.”
“I feel a bit of a fraud, a bit of a loser – because we are not winning in the war against Aids.”
“I really, really hate losing,” he said, adding that he had turned to corporate winners so that the Global Fund could make money, “in the slipstream, in the wake of these companies”
So â??spoke Bonoâ??, at the launch of his new â??Product Redâ?? brand, which took place at the World Economic Forum today. Product Red is Bono’s attempt to wipeout AID’s and other diseases in Africa through siphening off a fraction of the profits from the purchase of the over-priced trappings of a disposable consumer lifestyle.
Using ‘the strength of powerful brands’ Product Red sees this collaboration, where the Product Red moniker is attached to various goods – so far Converse Sneakers, Gap T-Shirts, Armarni Sunglasses and an American Express Card – as a means of ‘conscientious commerce’ that will ‘reward both company shareholders and the global community’.
The debatable points are, of course, as follows:
*Is it self-defeating for the proposed route out of poverty to be generated by a disposable consumer lifestyle?
*Should a charity brand be relied upon to fund a solution to a problem created out of the poverty and inequality which these partner brands exploit?
*Should fundraising be filling a gap that, with fairer, more affordable and accessible care, would not be there?
On a seperate note, (and in no way would we be suggesting you might like to use this in conjunction with the Product Red site), our attention was drawn to â??Net Disastersâ??. Particularly fun are the chainsaw and dinosaur methods of destruction.
*Alternative avenues for supporting the fight against AID’s in Africa can be found at â??the Guardian Christmas Appealâ??