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RED has spent $40 million more on marketing than it has raised from the sales of RED products. They should have just spent the $100 million from marketing directly on AIDS charities & it would have been far more effective. Essentially its been one huge advertisement for GAP, American Express, and for Bono himself. It begs the question, is the RED campaign really spreading awareness about AIDS, or merely leveraging AIDS to market a new audience of people who want their philanthropy to fit in with their life-style. As the Buy Less Crap website encourages, it would be far more efficient to donate directly to AIDS charities. One has to wonder if Bono is more invested in solving the problem the most effective way possible, or doing it in a way that promotes his own image.
Moreover, many criticize Bono’s implementation of the RED campaign to only donate to the specific charities within the Global Fund that Bono himself selects, & that by choosing only charities that specifically treat patients more likely to be viewed as innocent victims" by Westerners, such as pregnant women & orphans, as Bono has done, while ignoring HIV patients sex workers, that the campaign "does more to undermine the global HIV prevention movement than to bolster it.
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2. more about the long-term dangers of RED
