Product Red

Bono and Bobby Shriver have created Product Red, a campaign to help fight AIDS in Africa. A few different companies (like Gap, Apple Computer, Motorola, Converse and more) have joined them by making some of their products "red" (I say "red" because while most of the items are indeed red, some are not). Whenever someone buys one of these red products, around 40-50% of the net profit goes to buy drugs that help fight HIV and AIDS.

Oprah is endorsing this campaign, as are a bunch of other celebrities (including Steven Spielberg, who apparently never gets involved in these kinds of things). It looks like a great cause. It's cool, too, because so many of these products are good-quality, so you end up with a win-win situation -- you get to buy a nice item for yourself or for someone else (many of these items would make great Christmas gifts!), and you also get to help someone in need.

On a side note, DVRs have a downside. I learned about Product Red yesterday on the Oprah show (no surprise there, right? ;-). The show actually aired on October 13th, which was the day we flew to New England, so I had the DVR record it and it sat there ever since. I finally got around to watching it yesterday, and I became so excited about Product Red that I wanted to share the news with everyone. I realize that the public has known about this for at least a month, but I hadn't learned of it until I saw it presented on Oprah. (I'm actually really surprised that I hadn't heard about it on the news, online, or through a friend or family member at some point during the past month. Is it just that this hasn't been publicized much, except through Oprah?) Anyway, my point is that maybe you've already heard of this, and if so, my apologies. That's one of the funny things about DVRs (at least for me)... days, weeks, or even months (many, many months!) can go by before I ever get around to watching a program. Then, once in a while, I find that I had really been missing out all that time.

See also the Product Red/Join Red blog: Blog Red.