Monday, February 23, 2009
Gossip Girl’s Chace Crawford in (RED) for the Oscars
"Gossip Girl" star Chace Crawford dazzled at Oscar night parties in an Emporio Armani (PRODUCT) RED black tuxedo. What a stylish way to show (RED) support! Emporio Armani contributes a portion of the profits from each (PRODUCT) RED piece to help eliminate AIDS in Africa.
Converse 1HUND(RED)S Spring 2009 Artists
Check out Converse’s newest 1HUND(RED)s for Spring, including some of the coolest shoes released yet. Featuring new creative from internationally celebrated musicians, artists and designers there’s sure to be a style for everyone.
The Edge, Musician, Dublin, Ireland (Artist #100)
U2’s guitarist has the distinction of designing the 100th shoe. The design features 100 arrowheads taken from the angle of a star, the graphic featured on every pair of Converse sneakers. The result is a bold design with clean lines that can be seen and interpreted in many ways.
Bobby Shriver, Humanitarian, Santa Monica, USA (Artist #2)
As one of the founders of (RED), humanitarian Bobby Shriver found himself wanting a Converse (PRODUCT) RED sneaker to accompany his Emporio Armani (PRODUCT) RED tuxedo. So, he designed one! His patent leather Chuck Taylor All Star sneaker features crushed velvet footbeds and sleek detailing that make the shoe red carpet ready.
Lupe Fiasco, Musician, Chicago, USA (Artist #80)
It’s nothing new that Lupe Fiasco has something to say—but it’s how he’s saying it that’s making noise. The acclaimed musical artist has collaborated with Converse to send out the word on foot for (RED)™. His 1HUND(RED) Artists design is inspired by newsprint and bears the familiar phrase (appearing in French around the shoe’s midsole) “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” With its printed canvas upper and iced outsole, Lupe’s message is black and white--and (RED) all over.
Andrew Mania, Artist, London, England (Artist #94)
First a fact: Andrew Mania’s real name is Mania. “It’s Polish and centuries old,” Andrew explains. With conceptual work that riffs off famous art pieces—and has netted him big name galleries in London and Chelsea—one might assume it’s a fake name, but it’s not. Andrew uses everything from clothing to photos in his work. When it came time to make his 1HUND(RED) shoe, he’d already been doing his own take on “This is not a pipe.” Andrew explains, “Clothes or sneakers are just another set of materials to play with. And the shoe can be a work of art, or something other than what it obviously is.”
Take a look at the entire collection here and go get your own pair!
The Edge, Musician, Dublin, Ireland (Artist #100)
U2’s guitarist has the distinction of designing the 100th shoe. The design features 100 arrowheads taken from the angle of a star, the graphic featured on every pair of Converse sneakers. The result is a bold design with clean lines that can be seen and interpreted in many ways.
Bobby Shriver, Humanitarian, Santa Monica, USA (Artist #2)
As one of the founders of (RED), humanitarian Bobby Shriver found himself wanting a Converse (PRODUCT) RED sneaker to accompany his Emporio Armani (PRODUCT) RED tuxedo. So, he designed one! His patent leather Chuck Taylor All Star sneaker features crushed velvet footbeds and sleek detailing that make the shoe red carpet ready.
Lupe Fiasco, Musician, Chicago, USA (Artist #80)
It’s nothing new that Lupe Fiasco has something to say—but it’s how he’s saying it that’s making noise. The acclaimed musical artist has collaborated with Converse to send out the word on foot for (RED)™. His 1HUND(RED) Artists design is inspired by newsprint and bears the familiar phrase (appearing in French around the shoe’s midsole) “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” With its printed canvas upper and iced outsole, Lupe’s message is black and white--and (RED) all over.
Andrew Mania, Artist, London, England (Artist #94)
First a fact: Andrew Mania’s real name is Mania. “It’s Polish and centuries old,” Andrew explains. With conceptual work that riffs off famous art pieces—and has netted him big name galleries in London and Chelsea—one might assume it’s a fake name, but it’s not. Andrew uses everything from clothing to photos in his work. When it came time to make his 1HUND(RED) shoe, he’d already been doing his own take on “This is not a pipe.” Andrew explains, “Clothes or sneakers are just another set of materials to play with. And the shoe can be a work of art, or something other than what it obviously is.”
Take a look at the entire collection here and go get your own pair!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
In the new Elle: Scarlett Johansson in Rwanda and an open letter from Bono
The new issue of Elle Magazine features an open letter from Bono about buying (RED) and a piece highlighting (RED) ambassador Scarlett Johansson's work in Rwanda. The magazine is on shelves now.
THE REAL DEAL
Everyone shops with an eye toward saving money these days—but it’s just as easy to do so and save lives. An open letter from (RED)’s Bono:
ELLE asked me to turn this page (RED) to honor the fact that women are at the vanguard of a movement to stop the greatest health crisis in 600 years: HIV/ AIDS. First off, I want to ask you, Why is it that women are much less willing than men to accept a world where 5,500 people a day die from a preventable, treatable disease? Could it have something to do with that second X chromosome? Do we men have some gene that makes us look the other way— that gives us a penis but no conscience?
Me, I don’t believe in biological destiny. I think women care more because women bear more of the burden. Almost two thirds of Africans with AIDS are women. In South Africa, nearly 90 percent of new infections occurred in 15-to-24-year-old females. (I can’t get my head around that fact, let alone get it out of my head.) I could fill this whole page with such numbers… but while statistics paint a picture, they don’t tell a story. So here goes.
Six years ago, I was traveling across Africa. AIDS at that time and place was a death sentence, taking out not just the youngest and oldest, who are always more vulnerable to disease, but also those in the prime of their lives—parents and others with important jobs to do. Communities were being stripped of teachers, doctors, nurses, farmers, businesspeople, builders— their workforce, their life force. In the worst hit parts of Uganda, nine-year-old girls were left in charge of raising their younger brothers and sisters. Orphans raising orphans. In the twenty-first century.
The rest of the world made sympathetic noises—but did little more than that. Meanwhile, African AIDS activists were doing everything they could to stop the spread of the virus. During my trip, we met with a group in Johannesburg to see how we could support their work. One of the most surreal moments in my life—and there have been a few—took place in a canteen with 20 people, all of them HIV-positive, who spent every hour of every day traveling from place to place to warn of the dangers of HIV. These volunteers explained how the stigma of the disease puts people off getting tested, but the workshops they were doing at schools, businesses, and street corners were having a big impact. It was compelling stuff. The rest of us felt energized, uplifted.
Then, at the end of our meeting, I overheard a quiet debate among the activists as to which of them would get the single course of antiretroviral therapy (ARVs) they’d just received. There were not enough life-saving pills to go round. And so, together, they had to decide who would get the pills and who would go without.
I was stunned. These volunteers were doing their best to save others’ lives—but could not save their own. Like firefighters rushing into a burning building and being consumed by the flames.
Our science and technology, it turned out, were more advanced than our conscience. We in the West had the means to save lives, but we lacked the resolve.
What can we do? Well, the short answer is: a lot. At the time of that trip, only 50,000 Africans had access to ARVs. That figure today is 2.1 million. That’s because a lot of people have been doing a lot of things, in Africa and all over the world. In the face of the AIDS emergency, we’ve got to gang up on the problem.
Which brings me, improbably, to shopping. Not everybody is able to march to the barricades—not everybody owns a pair of proper military boots —but there’s something you can do even in Manolos. (RED) is the consumer wing of a much wider movement of activists, and consumers have more power than they realize. They have power in their pockets.
(RED) raises money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS—$120 million so far. That is enough to buy drugs for more than 750,000 people for a year. (RED) funds prevention and counseling programs as well as treatment, and is now the thirteenth biggest contributor to the Global Fund; it’s giving more than many countries.
The money comes from corporations doing the right thing—the (RED) thing. Some call it “conscious consumerism.” The companies involved don’t mark up their products to get you to pay a premium. They take a piece of the profits from every (RED) thing you buy, and they use it to buy lifesaving medication for those who can’t afford it.
(RED) meets consumers on the main street, on the high street, in the malls, online—and in magazines like this one. Some of the coolest brands have signed up, and depending on where you live, you can drink (RED), wear (RED), talk (RED), type (RED), and work (RED). You can also hear (RED)—through (RED)Wire, our subscription music service.
As I said, it’s just one flank of a much bigger army, but the (RED) brigade is pretty impressive. We have some amazing women involved—Scarlett Johansson, Gisele Bündchen, Christy Turlington, Penélope Cruz, Julia Roberts, Alicia Keys, and Jennifer Garner. And some men who aren’t bad, either—Kanye West, Djimon Hounsou, Chris Rock, and the great Steven Spielberg . Then there are the millions of men and women whose names we don’t know, but whose (RED) purchases are doing nothing less than keeping people alive.
I come from a line of traveling salesmen on my mother’s side. One of them, my Uncle Jack, always told me that when you’re making your pitch don’t get the door slammed in your face. I know I’m in danger of that right now. These are tough times for a hard sell, hard to talk about shopping when everybody’s belt-tightening. Everyone is more conscious than ever about where they spend their hard-earned cash. (RED) is not asking you to flock to the stores for the sake of it. But if you find yourselves browsing, we are asking you to choose (RED) where you can—for the sake of those who can’t ask you themselves.
—Bono
TOTAL CENTS
(RED) ambassador Scarlett Johansson traveled to Rwanda, where HIV/AIDS ravages a population (and less than a dollar a day can mean survival)
Clockwise from above right: Johansson visits the Kabuga Health Center where the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission treatment allowed these toddlers to be born HIV-free; this newborn was saved by PMTCT, and although the mother is HIV-positive, the baby has tested negative for the disease; Johansson visits Denise Mushimiyimana, 10 (here at home with her two younger brothers), who was hospitalized with AIDS until antiretroviral medicine had her healthy enough to go to school. After two years of treatment, Denise is now thriving; a hopeful generation outside the children’s ward at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire.
Since its launch in 2006, the (RED) initiative has raised more than $120 million, the results of which are already clear on the ground in sub-Saharan Africa, with prevention programs, food, education, and the distribution of antiretroviral drugs. Still, every day more than 1,000 children are infected with HIV, and an estimated 12.1 million have been orphaned by it. And universal taboos against testing remain: “When I admitted that I’d taken two HIV tests, everyone was completely horrified, the implication being that I was leading this wild lifestyle,” says Scarlett Johansson, whose decision to join Bono in the (RED) initiative was a no-brainer. “I was only being responsible.” The genius of (RED) is that it empowers consumers with this sense of living responsibly and healthily and passing it on: When you purchase (PRODUCT) RED items—from partners including Apple, Armani, Converse, Dell, Gap, Hallmark, Starbucks, and Microsoft—in stores and via Joinred.com, up to 50 percent of profits go directly to fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa. Forty cents a day translates to the two antiretroviral pills needed to survive. “If that can be achieved by buying a couple of pairs of Converse,” Johansson says, “it’s worth a shot, don’t you think?” —Interview by Emmanuelle Dasque
THE REAL DEAL
Everyone shops with an eye toward saving money these days—but it’s just as easy to do so and save lives. An open letter from (RED)’s Bono:
ELLE asked me to turn this page (RED) to honor the fact that women are at the vanguard of a movement to stop the greatest health crisis in 600 years: HIV/ AIDS. First off, I want to ask you, Why is it that women are much less willing than men to accept a world where 5,500 people a day die from a preventable, treatable disease? Could it have something to do with that second X chromosome? Do we men have some gene that makes us look the other way— that gives us a penis but no conscience?
Me, I don’t believe in biological destiny. I think women care more because women bear more of the burden. Almost two thirds of Africans with AIDS are women. In South Africa, nearly 90 percent of new infections occurred in 15-to-24-year-old females. (I can’t get my head around that fact, let alone get it out of my head.) I could fill this whole page with such numbers… but while statistics paint a picture, they don’t tell a story. So here goes.
Six years ago, I was traveling across Africa. AIDS at that time and place was a death sentence, taking out not just the youngest and oldest, who are always more vulnerable to disease, but also those in the prime of their lives—parents and others with important jobs to do. Communities were being stripped of teachers, doctors, nurses, farmers, businesspeople, builders— their workforce, their life force. In the worst hit parts of Uganda, nine-year-old girls were left in charge of raising their younger brothers and sisters. Orphans raising orphans. In the twenty-first century.
The rest of the world made sympathetic noises—but did little more than that. Meanwhile, African AIDS activists were doing everything they could to stop the spread of the virus. During my trip, we met with a group in Johannesburg to see how we could support their work. One of the most surreal moments in my life—and there have been a few—took place in a canteen with 20 people, all of them HIV-positive, who spent every hour of every day traveling from place to place to warn of the dangers of HIV. These volunteers explained how the stigma of the disease puts people off getting tested, but the workshops they were doing at schools, businesses, and street corners were having a big impact. It was compelling stuff. The rest of us felt energized, uplifted.
Then, at the end of our meeting, I overheard a quiet debate among the activists as to which of them would get the single course of antiretroviral therapy (ARVs) they’d just received. There were not enough life-saving pills to go round. And so, together, they had to decide who would get the pills and who would go without.
I was stunned. These volunteers were doing their best to save others’ lives—but could not save their own. Like firefighters rushing into a burning building and being consumed by the flames.
Our science and technology, it turned out, were more advanced than our conscience. We in the West had the means to save lives, but we lacked the resolve.
What can we do? Well, the short answer is: a lot. At the time of that trip, only 50,000 Africans had access to ARVs. That figure today is 2.1 million. That’s because a lot of people have been doing a lot of things, in Africa and all over the world. In the face of the AIDS emergency, we’ve got to gang up on the problem.
Which brings me, improbably, to shopping. Not everybody is able to march to the barricades—not everybody owns a pair of proper military boots —but there’s something you can do even in Manolos. (RED) is the consumer wing of a much wider movement of activists, and consumers have more power than they realize. They have power in their pockets.
(RED) raises money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS—$120 million so far. That is enough to buy drugs for more than 750,000 people for a year. (RED) funds prevention and counseling programs as well as treatment, and is now the thirteenth biggest contributor to the Global Fund; it’s giving more than many countries.
The money comes from corporations doing the right thing—the (RED) thing. Some call it “conscious consumerism.” The companies involved don’t mark up their products to get you to pay a premium. They take a piece of the profits from every (RED) thing you buy, and they use it to buy lifesaving medication for those who can’t afford it.
(RED) meets consumers on the main street, on the high street, in the malls, online—and in magazines like this one. Some of the coolest brands have signed up, and depending on where you live, you can drink (RED), wear (RED), talk (RED), type (RED), and work (RED). You can also hear (RED)—through (RED)Wire, our subscription music service.
As I said, it’s just one flank of a much bigger army, but the (RED) brigade is pretty impressive. We have some amazing women involved—Scarlett Johansson, Gisele Bündchen, Christy Turlington, Penélope Cruz, Julia Roberts, Alicia Keys, and Jennifer Garner. And some men who aren’t bad, either—Kanye West, Djimon Hounsou, Chris Rock, and the great Steven Spielberg . Then there are the millions of men and women whose names we don’t know, but whose (RED) purchases are doing nothing less than keeping people alive.
I come from a line of traveling salesmen on my mother’s side. One of them, my Uncle Jack, always told me that when you’re making your pitch don’t get the door slammed in your face. I know I’m in danger of that right now. These are tough times for a hard sell, hard to talk about shopping when everybody’s belt-tightening. Everyone is more conscious than ever about where they spend their hard-earned cash. (RED) is not asking you to flock to the stores for the sake of it. But if you find yourselves browsing, we are asking you to choose (RED) where you can—for the sake of those who can’t ask you themselves.
—Bono
TOTAL CENTS
(RED) ambassador Scarlett Johansson traveled to Rwanda, where HIV/AIDS ravages a population (and less than a dollar a day can mean survival)
Clockwise from above right: Johansson visits the Kabuga Health Center where the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission treatment allowed these toddlers to be born HIV-free; this newborn was saved by PMTCT, and although the mother is HIV-positive, the baby has tested negative for the disease; Johansson visits Denise Mushimiyimana, 10 (here at home with her two younger brothers), who was hospitalized with AIDS until antiretroviral medicine had her healthy enough to go to school. After two years of treatment, Denise is now thriving; a hopeful generation outside the children’s ward at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire.
Since its launch in 2006, the (RED) initiative has raised more than $120 million, the results of which are already clear on the ground in sub-Saharan Africa, with prevention programs, food, education, and the distribution of antiretroviral drugs. Still, every day more than 1,000 children are infected with HIV, and an estimated 12.1 million have been orphaned by it. And universal taboos against testing remain: “When I admitted that I’d taken two HIV tests, everyone was completely horrified, the implication being that I was leading this wild lifestyle,” says Scarlett Johansson, whose decision to join Bono in the (RED) initiative was a no-brainer. “I was only being responsible.” The genius of (RED) is that it empowers consumers with this sense of living responsibly and healthily and passing it on: When you purchase (PRODUCT) RED items—from partners including Apple, Armani, Converse, Dell, Gap, Hallmark, Starbucks, and Microsoft—in stores and via Joinred.com, up to 50 percent of profits go directly to fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa. Forty cents a day translates to the two antiretroviral pills needed to survive. “If that can be achieved by buying a couple of pairs of Converse,” Johansson says, “it’s worth a shot, don’t you think?” —Interview by Emmanuelle Dasque
Friday, February 13, 2009
This Valentine's Day, Make Your Gift (RED)
By Susan Smith Ellis
CEO, (RED)
What to get her for Valentine’s Day? What to get him? Flowers, chocolates, teddy bears are marketed ceaselessly on television. Been there, done that.
Better idea: (RED) products. They’re the right color (red). Desire and virtue neatly packaged all in one. And they have an immediate impact on the lives of others.
When you buy a (RED) product you make a choice that literally saves lives in Africa. A (RED) iPod is the same price as any other iPod, but when you choose the (RED) iPod, Apple makes a contribution to The Global Fund. That contribution is put to use directly on the ground in Africa. That’s how the (RED) model works – with each and every partner we have.
And it’s been working. Thanks to consumers all over the world, (RED)-branded product partners have generated more than $120 million to the Global Fund in just over 2 years.
In fact, The Global Fund now estimates that if (RED) were a country, it would be the 11th largest donor to African HIV and AIDS programs in the world. The combined revenue has impacted the lives of over 2.5 million people. That’s a lot of love shared.
With an issue as large as HIV in Africa and a need so great, there is always more to be done, especially in economic times when budgets are being cut, and donations to groups assisting with HIV and AIDS in Africa are down dramatically. We believe (RED) will prove to be the sustainable model that helps get medicine to the people who need it even in tough times – but that will only happen with your help.
So here is a list of our partners: American Express, Apple, Converse , Dell, Gap, Emporio Armani, Hallmark, Microsoft and Starbucks.
We hope that you’ll buy their (RED) products and extend the reach of Valentine’s Day to people a world away. And make the one you love happy.
CEO, (RED)
What to get her for Valentine’s Day? What to get him? Flowers, chocolates, teddy bears are marketed ceaselessly on television. Been there, done that.
Better idea: (RED) products. They’re the right color (red). Desire and virtue neatly packaged all in one. And they have an immediate impact on the lives of others.
When you buy a (RED) product you make a choice that literally saves lives in Africa. A (RED) iPod is the same price as any other iPod, but when you choose the (RED) iPod, Apple makes a contribution to The Global Fund. That contribution is put to use directly on the ground in Africa. That’s how the (RED) model works – with each and every partner we have.
And it’s been working. Thanks to consumers all over the world, (RED)-branded product partners have generated more than $120 million to the Global Fund in just over 2 years.
In fact, The Global Fund now estimates that if (RED) were a country, it would be the 11th largest donor to African HIV and AIDS programs in the world. The combined revenue has impacted the lives of over 2.5 million people. That’s a lot of love shared.
With an issue as large as HIV in Africa and a need so great, there is always more to be done, especially in economic times when budgets are being cut, and donations to groups assisting with HIV and AIDS in Africa are down dramatically. We believe (RED) will prove to be the sustainable model that helps get medicine to the people who need it even in tough times – but that will only happen with your help.
So here is a list of our partners: American Express, Apple, Converse , Dell, Gap, Emporio Armani, Hallmark, Microsoft and Starbucks.
We hope that you’ll buy their (RED) products and extend the reach of Valentine’s Day to people a world away. And make the one you love happy.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Liev Schreiber in the new Gap (PRODUCT)RED Spring Graphic T
Check out Liev Schreiber wearing the new Gap (PRODUCT)RED Spring Graphic T designed by Bodie Chewning, with family in tow.
Buy it here:
http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=37464&pid=642197
Buy it here:
http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=37464&pid=642197
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