Aidspod Nano

San Francisco (dpa) - Call it altruism for the consumer age. Buy trendy products advertised by the likes of Steven Spielberg, Bono and Mary J Blige, and somewhere in Africa a man, woman or child will be saved from the scourge of HIV-AIDS that is ravaging the continent.

Too good to be true? Not according to Bono, the lead singer of Irish supergroup U2, who on Friday trumpeted an unprecedented alliance of cutting edge companies lining up behind his initiative to harness the power of commercialism to deal with the dire health crisis facing Africans.

It may seem flippant to buy a bright red iPod Nano as your good deed of the year, not to mention a Motorola Razr phone or a GAP red leather jacket as modelled on the pages of the New York Times by Steven Spielberg. But with up to half of the profits going to The Global Fund, an organization that fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, what better reason could there be for splashing out on red Armani sunglasses?

Bono’s “(PRODUCT) RED” initiative marks a departure from the normal fundraising initiatives, which have so far failed to address the awful reality of AIDS in Africa. Experts estimate that there are more than 25 million people infected with HIV/AIDS, 5,000 people die from it every day and 18 million children are predicted to have lost a parent to the disease by 2010.

“Some people won’t put on marching boots, so we’ve got to get to people where they are at, and they’re in the shopping malls,” Bono said. “Now you’re buying jeans and T-shirts, and you’re paying for 10 women in Africa to get medication for their children with HIV.”

“What’s clever about this is getting the best and brightest of corporate America working for the world’s poor. That’s the thought that overwhelms me, that the people that I’ve met dying in Lesotho now have the best and brightest people working for them,” Bono added.

Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund, agreed.

“The power of RED is its win-win model. Consumers get the latest hip products, companies get a boost to their sales, and the Global Fund gets vitally needed support for life-saving programmes in Africa.”

The concept seemed to be working at Apple’s corporate store in San Francisco, where Monica Sewell, a 28-year-old graphic designer, snapped up a 200-dollar red iPod almost as soon as it went on sale. “I was going to get one anyway,” she explained. “If I can do something positive at the same time that’s a big plus.”

That’s exactly the attitude that Bobby Shriver, chief executive officer of RED had in mind when he helped Bono come up with the concept.

“With (PRODUCT) RED, consumers can tap into the power of commerce to do something amazing and unprecedented,” he said. “We’re not asking anyone for a donation or for them to change their behaviour. People buy things every day. But now, when they buy (PRODUCT) RED, they will look good and do good - and that’s good business.”

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