NEWS / PMPS

Bono, Oprah and iPod to Fight AIDS

13 Oct, 2006, 12:00 pm IST | AP | PMPs

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey and humanitarian rocker Bono went on a shopping spree in Chicago to promote a new line of clothing, accessories and gadgets, including a special-edition iPod, that will raise money to fight AIDS in Africa.

Dozens of ''(Product) Red'' items will go on sale in the coming weeks by Gap, Apple Computer, Motorola, Converse and Emporio Armani.

Portions of the product sales will go to The Global Fund, an organization that fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

''Some people won't put on marching boots, so we've got to get to people where they are at, and they're in the shopping malls,'' Bono said in a phone interview. ''Now you're buying jeans and T-shirts, and you're paying for 10 women in Africa to get medication for their children with HIV.''

Apple will contribute $10 from the sale of each new red-colored iPod nano. The model, priced the same as its $199 cousins, goes on sale Friday.
With Apple's iPod alone, The Global Fund stands to raise millions of dollars. During the holiday quarter in 2005, Apple sold 14 million iPods. The iPod maker also plans to donate some proceeds from a $25 iTunes Red gift card to the organization.

''I love the fact that Bono is trying to do something about this problem,'' Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said in a phone interview. ''I've never been to Africa, but you don't have to go there to know there are a lot of people dying of AIDS there. In a small way, this is something we could do about it.''

Bono, who knows the difficulties of raising awareness for social causes, was thrilled with the retailers' efforts for the campaign.

''We've moved from the philanthropy budgets to the marketing budgets, and guess what, there's no comparison in size,'' Bono said. ''We now have some of the most creative people in commerce—Steve Jobs, the marketing people at Gap and Motorola—all working for the world's poor. That is so so cool.''

Tags: Apple iPod , Motorola

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