Bono's charity questioned

Some questions are being raised about how effective Bono's RED charity campaign has been in terms of fundraising. The U2 frontman launched the drive last year to raise money for African aid programs through purchases of things like red cell phones and iPods, and major corporations are said to have spent about $100 million on marketing. But according to a story published by Advertising Age magazine, RED has only generated about $18 million so far.

Red Vice President of Marketing Julie Cordua said the total will probably go higher when some more companies close their 2006 books, while Rajesh Anandan, the head of private-sector partnerships for the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, And Malaria, said, "RED has done as much as we could have hoped for in the short time it has been up and running... The launch cost of this kind of campaign is going to be hugely frontloaded."

Charity Navigator president Trent Stamp, whose firm tracks spending by 5,000 non-profit organizations, said the success of the RED campaign depends on whether it "inspires young people to be better citizens or just gives them an excuse to feel good about themselves while they buy an overpriced item they don't really need."

Meanwhile, the folks behind a website called buylesscrap.org are hoping people will make direct donations to the Global Fund instead of buying RED-branded items. Creative Director Ben Davis said, "The RED campaign proposes consumption as the cure to the world's evils. Can't we just focus on the real solution -- giving money?"
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