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(PRODUCT) RED™ helps Africa (and Philippines)

October 15, 2006

Bono’s latest project is something called (PRODUCT) RED™. The idea is simple: buy RED™ products and part of the price goes to Africa. I was walking by the GAP and decided to pick up a RED™ shirt. The salesperson explained how the shirts were made in Africa and that part of the sales price would be donate to African causes. Neat. I bought a shirt.

They gave me a little card that explained the program:

Thank you so much for your desire to support GAP (PRODUCT) RED™. The positive response to this collection has been overwelming. We are responding as quickly as we can. More of these t-shirts, which are made in Africa, willbe here soon. We will gladly update your when they arrive.

So when I was clipping the price tag off of my shirt I noticed that printed on the collar was “MADE IN PHILIPPINES”. Hmm… I thought these were made in Africa? Not that I mind where they are made, but they do advertise that they are made in Africa - i.e. helping creating jobs there.  Check out Wink’s sponsorship.

Written by Alexander Muse · Filed Under Blog 

Comments

One Response to “(PRODUCT) RED™ helps Africa (and Philippines)”

  1. Jessica Says:
    October 17th, 2006 at 10:22 am

    Ok, I don’t want to be a downer here, because I agree that this is a great program. What a great way to help the economy in Africa and help create jobs and such. But I have to wonder . . . what are we doing here? What about the poverty in our own country? Maybe that’s a selfish way of looking at it, but shouldn’t we look at our own problems a little deeper and create programs to solve those problems? Just a thought.

  2. Alexander Muse Says:
    October 17th, 2006 at 1:30 pm

    I agree that we need to do everything in our power to help everyone here in the U.S., but I don’t think “help” is zero-sum. I think we can do both.

    Specifically, we have perception problem in Africa. The muslims have engaged the African populations and have fomented hatred of the U.S. - we might consider engagement as not only the moral thing to do, but the smart thing to do. It is much cheaper to wage peace than it is to wage war… Lets wage a little peace at home and abroad!

  3. Christopher St. John Says:
    October 18th, 2006 at 2:22 pm

    Fine print from the joinred site: “One vintage-style T-shirt from the collection is being manufactured in Lesotho…” Meaning, I take it, just one style is actually made in Africa, not “just the one t-shirt.”

    As to the issue of helping here at home first: another purely self-interested justification for helping Africa is that the public health issues are deeply frightening even an ocean away. AIDS hasn’t disappeared, it’s endemic, and that’s bad for us in the long term.

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