(red)

[Spasiba]

I'm not sure if this belongs here, but is an action a worker can do, so yeah:
I'm sure you've seen it advertised, this (RED) thing that has companies display its logo on products that when they are bought, a percentage goes to help communities in Africa and AIDS, or so I've been told. Is this effective at all? Or just some liberal attempt at making people feel good about exploiting sweatshop workers and with no real, true achievments in the end? I ask because I've seen a few friends of mine sporting some shirts, and I just don't think that this (RED) thing does anything. How could it unless there were real changes made, i.e. perhaps companies that gave a crap about people, and such, sure it's not leftist but at least something would be done.

[Niccolò Rossi]

Maybe I'm over-generalizing, but in my mind any company that attempts to "give back to the community" via charity, is simply trying to, as you suggest, make people feel good about buying from these trans-national monster corporations brutally exploiting sweat-shop labour.

The reason companies do this kind of crap (charity and what not) is to give them a more ethical face, in an attempt to raise sales via the people who like to buy "ethical".

Yeah, maybe it does some good, but these corporations are the ones perpetuating the suffering in the first place. Their goal is not to fix what they've fucked but instead to generate sales. You can't look at it any other way.

[Red October]

(Red) is a farce and not worthwhile at all. It's basically a advertising scheme masked as altruism, and it hasn't even raised much money in proportion to the amount spent on advertising (Red) and it's products. It's fucking disgusting that people are being told they can help solve the disasters of capitalism by buying more shit. If people want to give to charity, which I don't have an issue with, it's far more efficient to just mail a check to whichever charity you like than to buy a pair of (Red) converses or a new (Red) phone.

Plus, they stole our color :D

[YSR]

I believe I heard that the RED campaign spent more on advertising than it actually made for charity.

No joke.

Fuck charity.

[Red October]

I believe I heard that the RED campaign spent more on advertising than it actually made for charity.

No joke.

Fuck charity.

I think the numbers are around 100 million dollars spent on advertising (Red) products and only around 50 million dollars actually donated to charity.

[Module]

Comments on Myspace advertisement videos criticising it got deleted. Or was it YouTube?
Regardless...

[Spasiba]

Thanks guys, seems like it was pretty much what it thought!

American Express, Apple Inc., Converse, Motorola, Gap, Emporio Armani, Hallmark, Microsoft, Dell- some of the businesses working with them. Anyone know how these corporations treat their workers?



Plus, they stole our color :D
True! Those bastards! We still have black, I suppose.


I believe I heard that the RED campaign spent more on advertising than it actually made for charity.

No joke.

Fuck charity.
Now that is hilarious and disgusting. Glad to see money being spent on their intentions...



Comments on Myspace advertisement videos criticising it got deleted. Or was it YouTube?
Regardless...
Do they work together or something? Way to censor people, but then, how would they make money if people knew the truth?

[Spasiba]

*bump*:p:blushing:

They've caught my attention again (facebook cause my friend asked me to join), and I'm wondering if there's anything new coming out of it. Still the same farce I'd guess, yes?
Have they done much good at all? I mean, look at this thread, at that point they had spent more money for advertising than for charity.

[Pogue]

Its just another bullshit advertising campaign which acheives fuck all. Another means for genuinely good natured people to be duped into believing the corporate aparatus is actually altruistic, when the opposite is the case.

[Invincible Summer]

I remember watching a Youtube video where the guy was wearing a (red) shirt, and lots of comments were saying things like "Nice shirt! Good to see you're compassionate!" and other yuppie bullshit like that.


Fuck. I hate yuppies. These campaigns are so fucking bullshit it makes me so angry that people are dumb enough to buy into it.


Despite this, I tend to be put off by the "wait 'til the revolution!" attitude that some comrades have. Charity definitely has its place, so long as one doesn't feel that it's the solution to the problems they are trying to abate.

[Red Rebel]

The capitalists class is so benevolent to kick down more scraps to the workers slaving away in sweatshops...

[LOLseph Stalin]

Things like this are never worth it. More money of the money raised just ends up going towards advertising than actually helping the cause.

[griffjam]

its the same as greenwash. putting labels like (red) "fair trade" and "organic" all just marketing ploys the same as "0% trans fat" "omega-3" and "no skin from a hobo's mouth"

[Angry Young Man]

One of their mottos I saw was 'Gilt without the guilt', so you can guess at their target audience.

I thought it'd faded into the dustiest archive now?

[kiki75]

They're hypin' it back up, again. New commercials and all.

This is one campaign that actually physically repulses me. Armchair activism is bad enough, but capitalistic activism? My head implodes.

[Global_Justice]

on this topic read the first chapter of zizeks 'violence'. he explains how billionaires like bill gates (by a very large margin the largest charitable benefactor in history) use charity as a mask to hide exploitation and how this aids the continuation of capitalism. its an interesting idea.

[Comrade Anarchist]

The whole (RED) thing is just a some ploy to make people feel better when they buy crap.

[Charles Xavier]

The governments in Africa subsidize(d) the living standards in much of the imperialist world, giving out their resources and labour for pennies at the barrel of a gun. Charity regardless how much will not undo the crimes of current or the past and will not add up ever to the amount owed to them.

Whats needed is fair trade relations and justice not charity.

[Cumannach]

It's more like 'give us money our we'll let more of them starve'.

[The Idler]

Charity is one of capitalism's festering ulcers (http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2008/10/charity-one-of-capitilisms-festering.html)