[Bono] out of tune with poverty campaigners on branding plan

from The Times Online

By Jenny Davey, Tom Bawden and Liz Chong

LEADING non-governmental organisations attacked an initiative launched by Bono, the rock star, to fight Aids in Africa as a cynical ploy that would prove to be counterproductive.

The NGOs, set up to help the developing world, said that the venture would help to preserve the main causes of Aids, such as corrupt governments, by unintentionally providing them with valuable funds.

Bono denied that he was being used to boost the reputations of “fat-cat” businessmen as he announced the retail venture with the brands American Express, Gap, Converse and Giorgio Armani.

The frontman of the group U2 will help to sell products such as sports shoes and sunglasses under a new brand called “Red”, from which a proportion of revenues will be diverted to combat the disease.

At a press conference yesterday Bono said: “I am not a cheap date. I have been used before. We are not endorsing the products of these companies, these products are endorsing us.”

He said that the “risk of a rock star ending up with egg on his face” was worth it.

But Philip Stevens, director of health policy at the International Policy Network, said: “These kinds of projects are counterproductive because they create perverse incentives. In countries such as Uganda there is evidence of systematic embezzlement of aid, which strengthens the governments that are largely responsible for the spread of the disease.”

He said that poverty, largely the result of a lack of economic freedom, was the main cause of Aids and one of the hallmarks of the “extremely repressive” politics that exist in parts of Africa.

Matthew McGregor, of the War on Want campaign group, said: “Cynical marketing ploys aren’t the answer. The problem with schemes like this is that they miss the point.

“What people in developing countries need is a change to the rules that keep them poor — the trade rules that give corporations a free run at exploiting workers and suppliers.”