U2 frontman Bono received the inaugural Lionheart award the other day at the Cannes Lions Festivalof International Creativity for the accomplishments of his (RED) charitable initiative. Festival chair Terry Savage said, “Bono has used his celebrity status to successfully establish a global brand, through which he has built unique relationships with other such brands, to raise awareness and funds for the fight against AIDS and achieve greater good for humankind.”
Co-created with American activist Bobby Shriver, (RED) was created to drive awareness for HIV/AIDS, as well as to find a cure. Built around the notion of major brands releasing affiliated products for which up to 50% of profits would be contributed to (RED)’s global fund, the organization has raised US $250 million since its founding in 2006. Participating companies currently include Apple, Coca-Cola, Beats By Dr. Dre, and Starbucks.
Officially described as a recognition of “the person or organization that, through innovative use of commercial brand power, has made a significant and positive difference to people or the planet,” the Cannes Lionheart was presented to Bono on Saturday, June 21st. Earlier in the day, Bono was onstage with Apple senior vice president of design Jonathan Ive to discuss (RED)’s achievements and how far it still had to go in order to achieve its goals.
Bono gave a bit of backhanded praise to Apple as a major (and early) supporter of (RED while remaining largely anonymous in its affiliation, due to the lack of a conspicuous (RED) logo on their affiliated products. “One of the reasons it’s such a credit to have Jony Ive on the stage,” Bono told panel moderator and Vice CEO Shane Smith, “is because Apple is so fucking annoyingly quiet about the fact they’ve raised $75 million. Nobody knows!”
The reason, said Bono, was late Apple CEO Steve Jobs refused to have the (RED) logo anywhere on his products. “Where’s the (Red) branding?” he jokingly asked Ive. “Nobody can see that. This is modesty run amok. This is the Apple way. They’re like a religious cult.”
Responding good naturedly, Ive said, “We started in 2006 with one (Red) product, a Nano, and now we’ve got well over half a dozen…It’s been really, really special for us.”
Ever the philanthropist, Bono wasted none of his allotted time before diving straight into pitching (RED) to the capacity crowd in attendance, describing the venue as, “the most important room for (RED) to ever be in.” Comprised of heavyweights and thought leaders, Bono referred to his audience as, “sort of thermostat for the world,” when he appealed to them. “I really want to implore you all to help us with this,” said Bono, saying that he was looking for companies that would be fearless in their bid to create noise for the cause.
“The people in this room could really figure this shit out,” he said. “”If somebody has one product they make that they could just rebrand next year for (Red), “that would be a really great outcome for us,” said Bono, before he inviting delegates to signify support by giving their calling cards to the (RED) representatives in attendance.
As the representatives collected the cards, Bono outright asked attendees for ideas on how to expand the initiative beyond the co-branded product model. “Are there any ideas, by the way? Has anyone got one straight off?”
Michael Trautmann, co-founder of German agency thjnk, proved to be the right man in the right place at the right time when he announced from his seat in the audience that he was planning to launch a new website domain (.hiv) whose registration fees would be donated to AIDS charities and offered to host a new site, Red.hiv for free. The announcement drew applause, while Bono appeared visibly excited.
According to official press materials, (RED) has helped 40 million people over the last eight years by providing them with HIV/AIDS testing, medication and counseling.
By Mikhail Lecaros
