"The Embrace." And: the Bono Speaketh

OK so hopefully after yesterday y'all know what this "(Product)RED" thing is about...but what's the deal with the parentheses?

Up 'till now, I thought it was just vanity, but I was nosing around the website and found this:

"What's the meaning of the parentheses or brackets? Well, we call them "the embrace." Each company that becomes (RED) places its logo in this embrace and is then elevated to the power of red. Thus the name -- (PRODUCT)RED.

You, the consumer, can take your purchase to the power of (RED) simply by upgrading your choice. Thus the proposition: (YOU)RED. Be embraced, take your own fine self to the power of (RED). What better way to become a good-looking samaritan?!"


I also noticed a note from Bono. It's long (as he is notoriously loquacious), so here are the highlights:

Sometimes when I'm walking down the street a passer by will say "love your work on Africa, Bono, great cause." [But] this is not a "cause," this pandemic that we and so many others are working on. 5,500 Africans dying a day of AIDS, a preventable, treatable disease is not a cause. 5,500 Africans dying each day is an emergency.

Where ONE takes on the bigger, longer-term beast of changing policy and influencing government, (RED) is, I guess, about a more instant kind of gratification. If you buy a (RED) product from GAP, Motorola, Armani, Converse or Apple, they will give up to 50% of their profit to buy AIDS drugs for mothers and children in Africa. (RED) is the consumer battalion gathering in the shopping malls. You buy the jeans, phones, iPods, shoes, sunglasses, and someone - somebody's mother, father, daughter or son - will live instead of dying...

You might think it's too difficult get these drugs to the people who most need them. A couple of years ago when DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) lobbied President Bush, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac to do more on AIDS, we went to experts about this. From Bill and Melinda Gates, to Dr. Paul Farmer working in the poorest places on the earth, to Dr. Coutinho in his AIDS clinic in Uganda. Is it easy? No. Is it impossible? No. Can we do it? Absolutely. In 2001, there were 50,000 Africans taking ARVs. Now there are over one million people getting these lifesaving drugs thanks to President Bush's AIDS initiative, and thanks to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

There are though still 4.3 million Africans without drugs, which is why 100% of (RED) money is going directly to the Global Fund to support the work they are doing. (RED) uses the power in your pocket to keep people alive. ONE uses the power of your voice to create a more just world where people can earn their own way out of poverty.

All of this is ganging up on the same problem – the greatest health crisis in human history and the extreme poverty in which it thrives. The Number 1 question we get asked is, "What can I do to help?" From today, you can do one more thing than you could do yesterday. Shop (RED). And if you haven't already, join the One campaign at One.org.