The Product (RED)
campaign is sweeping the world, thanks to some heavyweight backing from celebrities
(Oprah, Bono) and brand names (Apple, American Express, Armani). It’s a great cause,
because for each (RED) branded product or service sold, a part of the profit goes to the
fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Africa.
Some prominent Web brands are getting behind it too – MySpace and AOL are the two media sponsors currently listed as
“donating space on their various platforms”.
Also the (RED) website itself is a great example of how the Web can contribute. For
example the YOU page asks people to submit
videos detailing what (RED) means to them:
“In the coming months, we will be launching a “video wall” that includes streaming
video of people talking about what (RED)™ is. Some of the people
featured will be world leaders, others will be people involved in creating some of the
products, and others will be passionate people like you!”
There is also a (RED) blog, hosted on
blogger.com. It’s an interesting blog outlining the seemingly normal lives of RED’s core
team. Well, I say *seemingly*, because how many normal bloggers are able to write something
like this…
“I heard news that the Oprah taping the day before was amazing, received a phone call
from Bobby about the important encounter with President Bush at the airport (see previous
post (RED) Force One), readied our servers for the influx of launch-day web
traffic, sent newsletters announcing the U.S. launch of (RED) to everyone on our mailing list, and exceeded my tolerance
for caffeine many times over – things were in order.”
…you know, hum-drum blog stuff like being on the Oprah show and meeting the
President.
So an excellent cause and very nicely done too with the website and blog.
