Buying to Donate is (red)icu(less), Says New .org
While we're sure retail campaigns like Gap's (red) and Kenneth Cole's Are You Putting Us On? mean well, they don't always ring sincere to the adxhausted audience they aim for.
With fingers on the pulse of a social backlash, Words Pictures Ideas and Romantic Static marry up to bring us the cynical Buy Less Crap, a pithy-prints effort pushing for less, not more, purchase-oriented donation.
In contrast to Gap's campaign, where donations are tied to purchasing (red) clothing modeled in the ads, (less) ads feature naked models with headings like (red)icu(less), meaning(less) and point(less). The website lists multiple charities where people can donate without having to purchase a heart-warming hoodie.
This isn't the first spoof on Gap's (red) but we dig the way it makes the point. While we see the benefit of turning philanthropy into its own sort of brand in a consumer culture, we can't shake the feeling there's a conflict of interest in blurring the lines between purchase and social responsibility.
Comments
It's like a bunch of celebritards got together and said, "How can we look like we care, without actually doing anything other that what we normally do, i.e pose with shit?,
And then some agency thought, "How can WE look like WE care, without actually doing anything other than what we normally do, i.e. take pictures of people posing with shit?"
And then, they got together, like Laverne and Shirley.
Meanwhile, the rest of us felt the Invisible Hand of the Market trying to pluck our heartstrings.
No. Wait. It's reaching for our wallets. Hey! That's not my wallet! I need an adult!
Basically, the whole thing is: Buy This Crap Or Oprah And Bono Won't Be Your Friend.
Hey, that's a powerful argument. I'd probably kill myself if Oprah and Bono weren't my friends.
Oh wait, they aren't. I guess that's the end of me.
*bummed*
As one of the organizers of BUY (LESS) CRAP, I can assure you, it was daunting to consider pissing off Oprah and Bono, never mind the legal, public relations and marketing teams of GAP, Apple, Motorola, Sprint, American Express, and Georgio Armani.
Love your observations, Hugh. And Angela, I'll be your freind, for real.
Help us spread the http://buylesscrap.org/ word!
You rock, Ben. But we can't really be friends until we've added one another on MySpace. You know that.
Kind of sick for them to act like they really care.
Sad that they don't really care.
Sad that they don't really care.
Yeah that really is sad. Where are these peoples morales?
Post a comment