• Ad Age, Monday, March 5, 2007 11:30 AM

The tally raised worldwide for the celebrity-splashed Red marketing campaign to raise AIDS awareness is $18 million in its first year, below some expectations. The collective marketing outlay by Gap, Apple and Motorola for the Red campaign has been enormous, with some estimates as high as $100 million.

The disproportionate ratio between the marketing outlay and the money raised is drawing concern among nonprofit watchdogs, cause-marketing experts and even executives in the ad business. It threatens to spur a backlash, not just against the Red campaign--which set out to change the cause-marketing model by allowing partners to profit from charity--but also for the brands involved.

The campaign's inherent appeal to conspicuous consumption also has spurred a parody by a group of San Francisco designers and artists, who take issue with the rallying cry. "Shopping is not a solution. Buy less. Give more," is the message at buylesscrap.org, which encourages people to give directly to the Global Fund Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

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