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Okay, so I been seeing these ads on the t00b for Moto phones where the message is so clear, they tell it to you:

BUY OUR PHONES TO FIGHT AIDS IN AFRICA!

Being the cynic bastard I am, I was immediately disgusted, repulsed, and a little bit impressed by the balls out crassness of it. It also peaked my curiousity. I did some googling of it and found out that this is only a small part of a bigger 'Product Red' campaign thought up by Bono (not making that up) where all kinds of brand name items - credit cards, sneakers, etc - that are bought have some of the cash go to fight AIDS.

Now you know what it is. Time fer OPINIONS! Here's my two cents:

At first, as I said, I was livid. But after reading it up a bit, it doesn't seem like such a bad idea. I mean, I'm not too keen on disease as a product placement, but money's money and the right thing for the wrong reason is still the right thing. If the end equals more money to fight AIDS, who am I to critisize the means?

All right, yer turns!

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My take on it is pretty simple. People are going to buy these things anyway. There are iPods, Moto Razrs (and maybe Slvrs, I can't remember), a bunch of stuff at the Gap, etc. All of these things are going to sell like crazy no matter what. So it seems like a no-brainer. The customer gets a special edition that most people won't ever have, and then charity gets 10% of it. It's a bit sad that this is the fastest way to earn money for fighing AIDS, but any port in a storm. Bono must be a cynic too, deep down, but it sure does work.

If Verizon had the red Razr I probably would have tried to turn mine in already. And I want the red Nano, for sure. So it in theory could have gotten me to replace two items I already own with the red versions. That's nice marketing there.

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Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

I think it's a good idea, but there's potential for abuse. How much of the money actually goes to people who need it, or to research? Sometimes it's a lot less than you'd think.

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I had an old signature. Now I've changed it.

My biggest beef with the promotion is that they got that idiotic Kanye West to do some of the commercials for it. Aside from that, good idea for a good cause. Just a crappy representative.

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I have a serious problem with it if charity gets 10%. That's not nearly enough. Charity should get 100% of the profits when a company has a promotion like this. That's the standard and it's bordering on criminal to do otherwise.

Edit

Yeah. They are donating $17 dollars a phone. That probably isn't enough given the exposure they are getting, etc. They are essentially profiting off of AIDS.

This post has been edited by The Ancient on 6th December 2006 18:30

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I think that if it's for good cause they should go for it.

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Quote (The Ancient @ 6th December 2006 13:19)

I have a serious problem with it if charity gets 10%. That's not nearly enough. Charity should get 100% of the profits when a company has a promotion like this. That's the standard and it's bordering on criminal to do otherwise.

Edit

Yeah. They are donating $17 dollars a phone. That probably isn't enough given the exposure they are getting, etc. They are essentially profiting off of AIDS.

I don't disagree with you, in an absolute sense, but I would wager that the majority of the people who are buying these things have never given of their own volition to charity. Given the products that are for sale, I think most are targeted towards people our age, who IIRC are the age group least likely to give charitable donations. Anything is better than zero, right?

For those who are curious, the site that lists most everything that is part of the project is http://www.joinred.com/

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

It's a kind of dodgy idea on face value, but it's better than nothing I suppose, and it probably is really the only choice, so, null vote.

It's better than a media blitz by celebs just to sell the iPod's latest version I suppose.

This post has been edited by Del S on 6th December 2006 19:33

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Quote (Rangers51 @ 6th December 2006 06:20)

My take on it is pretty simple. People are going to buy these things anyway. There are iPods, Moto Razrs (and maybe Slvrs, I can't remember), a bunch of stuff at the Gap, etc. All of these things are going to sell like crazy no matter what. So it seems like a no-brainer.

My thoughts exactly.

I wanted to add that hopefully doing the right thing for the wrong reasons will eventually get our demographic to start doing the right thing for the right reasons. Maybe this will be the little bit of motivation people need to start donating to charity.

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Quote (Gears @ 6th December 2006 16:34)

I wanted to add that hopefully doing the right thing for the wrong reasons will eventually get our demographic to start doing the right thing for the right reasons. Maybe this will be the little bit of motivation people need to start donating to charity.

I agree with this, no matter how unlikely it seems. Even so, I'd rather see people doing the right thing for the wrong reasons than not doing the right thing at all. Is it tacky to use AIDS as a sales pitch? Hell, yes. Is that an acceptable price to pay if we want corporations to contribute to something other than their own bottom line? Same answer.

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I think that it's for a good cause and like it's been said, some money is better than no money. Consider that there are thousands, possibly millions, of people who buy phones. That's a lot of money going to this organization and I think it has the potential to do a lot of good.

This post has been edited by Aether Master on 7th December 2006 02:18

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I think more of the money should be going to stop AIDS, but anything they're going to give is better than nothing

i agree that they would buy them anyway - no brainer etc, but at least it's a good cause so i'm for it, and yes it raises awareness.

Quote (Gears @ 6th December 2006 21:34)

I wanted to add that hopefully doing the right thing for the wrong reasons will eventually get our demographic to start doing the right thing for the right reasons. Maybe this will be the little bit of motivation people need to start donating to charity.

Sadly, our demographic are greedy bastards who even need a rap artist to make them make a small contribution to charity, and even then we demand something in return.

If this is honestly the only way to get funds to fight AIDS, then I think we have no hope. Still, as Rangers51 said, anything is better than nothing.

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Quote

Sadly, our demographic are greedy bastards who even need a rap artist to make them make a small contribution to charity, and even then we demand something in return.

I don't agree with this blanket generalization.

Are we as selfless as the WWII generation? Most definitely not. Are we money grubbing bastards who always and without fail look out for #1? Again, most definitely not.

I'm with the posters in here that think more money from this needs to go to the AIDS research than what is being allotted.

And for the record again, Kanye West sucks.


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Quote (Hamedo @ 27th December 2006 17:44)

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Sadly, our demographic are greedy bastards who even need a rap artist to make them make a small contribution to charity, and even then we demand something in return.

I don't agree with this blanket generalization.

A generalization based on experience in both school, the real world and a large portion of the media.

Quote ("Hamedo")

Are we as selfless as the WWII generation?  Most definitely not.  Are we money grubbing bastards who always and without fail look out for #1?  Again, most definitely not.

Funny, nearly all the people my age who I've met would fit your description word for word. You appear to live in a much nicer country than I do.

Quote ("Hamedo")

I'm with the posters in here that think more money from this needs to go to the AIDS research than what is being allotted.

Prehaps 100% would be good. Oh wait, what's that I hear? It's the greed of the corporations, that's what! It's unlikely that any company would willingly give much higher than they already are, nice as it would be.

Quote ("Hamedo")

And for the record again, Kanye West sucks.

You got that right. Him, and all his fellows, including that egotist 50 Cent.

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I agree it's better than nothing.
But the fact it's 10% profit to charity shows to me the companies involved are not willing to lose any profits over this at all and are more interested in making more sales using it than helping others, which is such a shame.

Anyway, hopefully this is getting things on the right track to better things, they might end up increasing that percentage soon, you never know!

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Prehaps 100% would be good. Oh wait, what's that I hear? It's the greed of the corporations, that's what! It's unlikely that any company would willingly give much higher than they already are, nice as it would be.

Total agreement. Corporations are the kings of sleaze. My personal least favorite are pharmecutical(sp?) companies.

Quote

You got that right. Him, and all his fellows, including that egotist 50 Cent.

For what it's worth, you just shot up about 20 points on the respect-o-meter in my eyes.



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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

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Oil companies make me sick. They probably have a rather large hand in half the wars going on in the Middle East, and they are certainly profiting from Earth's eventual demise.

I wonder how much of the 10% is lost through beaurocracy and transportation?

Edit

Hmm, I just noticed that they mis-spelled "despicable" in the poll.

This post has been edited by Sinslayer on 27th December 2006 21:29

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Quote (Sinslayer @ 27th December 2006 19:28)

Quote ("Hamedo")

I'm with the posters in here that think more money from this needs to go to the AIDS research than what is being allotted.

Prehaps 100% would be good. Oh wait, what's that I hear? It's the greed of the corporations, that's what! It's unlikely that any company would willingly give much higher than they already are, nice as it would be.

Oh right, so all the workers of those companies should work for no pay and let their families starve, right?
Oh wait, you want the companies to become bankrupt, so that those workers become unemployed, right?

Mr. Reality Check here: the small percentage, that's given to AIDS research is added to the final price, along with base research costs, production costs, worker fees etc. etc....
I mean, they could just say that they wouldn't do it, since there isn't anything in it for them.

You can say corporations are "evil" and "greedy" - try running one.

Quote (Sinslayer @ 27th December 2006 19:28)

Quote ("Hamedo")

And for the record again, Kanye West sucks.

You got that right. Him, and all his fellows, including that egotist 50 Cent.

Also, I disagree with collocating Kanye West with 50 Cent (okay, you can very well think his music sucks, you're entitled to that, but 50 Cent? Meh =/ )

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Quote ("SilverMaudin")

Oh right, so all the workers of those companies should work for no pay and let their families starve, right?
Oh wait, you want the companies to become bankrupt, so that those workers become unemployed, right?

I never said anything of the sort. Put it into perspective quickly - think how much money these companies make. They're not likely to go bankrupt if they prehaps donate at least 25% to the charity, eh?

Besides, it's their problem when they have barely any workforce left in their sweatshops thanks to AIDS.

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