Companies Create Brand to Support AIDS Prevention

A campaign started by the singer Bono and Bobby Shriver, a California politician, is raising money for AIDS prevention in Africa through the sale of shoes, cell phones, T-shirts, and other products, reports The New York Times.

Gap, Converse, American Express, and other companies will sell the new products under the brand name Red and will donate part of the profits to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, The Times reports.

Mr. Shriver, a member of the Kennedy family, said a key component of the campaign is that companies also benefit financially from the arrangement. “We don’t want anyone to be thinking, ‘I’m not making money on this thing,’ because then we failed,” he told the newspaper. “We want people buying houses in the Hamptons based on this because, if that happens, this thing is sustainable.”

Red products on sale in Britain since February have raised more than $10-million for the fund.