By SPIDERMAN Daily Planet Staff Writer
DOWNTOWN It seems even the AIDS epe-demic in Africa isn’t enough to cool clothing trends.
Leaders of the popular Red Campaign, including Councilman Bobby Shiver and pop star Bono, were recently faced with a glut of goods featuring the now iconic logo thanks to trendy shoppers who no longer liked the color or the campaign.
Red, which has sold millions of items to date, was stuck with warehouses stocked to the rafters with shirts, bracelets, cell phones and iPod Nanos. Sales were brisk when the campaign begin in 2006, helping to raise more than $550 million to fight AIDS in African.
But sales have since experienced a prolonged lull thanks to fickle fashionistas. Shriver and cohorts were expecting a major shipment of new goods and were stymied by the logistical problems that come along with a vast distribution network.
“We didn’t know what to do,” Shriver said. “We had all these goods and more on the way. We were in a real pickle.”
Some felt that a clearance sale of the existing items would cut into the numbers of items stored in the campaign’s warehouses, but that would restrict the amount of proceeds the group would have available to cover costs and make charitable contributions to struggling nations.
It was at that point that Bono stepped forward and proposed a radical proposition. Instead of selling the items to generate funds to donate, he proposed that the Red Campaign should give the excess items to the very same people they donated proceeds to in the past.
“We just felt that was the thing to do,” Bono said while on tour in western India where he was attending a conference on world trade. “Why slash the price on the items and slash the amount of money we would have to give when we could just give them the stuff. Now, they have iPods, bracelets, hats. Things they just can’t afford otherwise.”
It didn’t occur to Bono or Shiver that some of the villages they donated to do not have internet access, or even eletricity to run their new gadgets.
In all, the Red Campaign has shipped 3 million shirts, 400,000 cell phones, 50,000 iPods and a staggering 15 million bracelets to the nations of South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Sudan. While the numbers are large, it is but a fraction of the goods the campaign currently has in stock. Additional shipments are being planned for India, El Salvador and parts of Eastern Europe.
“We are just happy the items went to good use,” said Shiver, who was sporting a Red scarf, Red sunglasses and Red contact lenses. “I’m happy to know that there are kids in the world who are being helped by our campaign, and sporting Red.”
In an effort to go green, Red Campaign organizers have decided to dye all items with a combination of red ink, blood, sweat and tears.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 1, 2008. Read the original PDF.