Third%20World%20Quarterly%202008%20Richey - This article was downloaded by[Ingenta Content Distribution Routledge On 6 February 2010 Access details

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE This article was downloaded by: [Ingenta Content Distribution - Routledge] On: 6 February 2010 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 791963552] Publisher Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37- 41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Third World Quarterly Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713448481 Better (Red)™ than Dead? Celebrities, consumption and international aid Lisa Ann Richey a ; Stefano Ponte b a Department of Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark b Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen K, Denmark To cite this Article Richey, Lisa Ann and Ponte, Stefano(2008) 'Better (Red)™ than Dead? Celebrities, consumption and international aid', Third World Quarterly, 29: 4, 711 — 729 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/01436590802052649 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01436590802052649 Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

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Better (Red) TM than Dead? Celebrities, consumption and international aid LISA ANN RICHEY & STEFANO PONTE A BSTRACT Bono’s launch of Product ( RED ) TM at Davos in 2006 opens a new frontier for development aid. With the engagement of companies such as American Express, Converse, Gap and Emporio Armani, and now Hallmark, Dell and Microsoft, consumers can help HIV / AIDS patients in Africa. Aid celebrities—Bono, Jeffrey Sachs and Paul Farmer—guarantee the ‘cool quotient’, the management and the target of this new modality of aid. RED functions using the guarantee of celebrity together with the negotiated representation of a distant ‘Africa’ to meet competing, and perhaps incommensurable, objectives. A ‘rock man’s burden’—imagined along familiar constructions of sex, gender, race and place—frames African beneficiaries’ receiving process. At the same time, RED depicts consumer-citizens as fashion- conscious yet actively engaged and ethically reﬂexive.