Monday, October 16, 2006

Bono, Steve Jobs and Oprah

I like Bono. The music's good. He pulls off the whole rock star thing well, the conerts are great and he does care about big stuff.

But this...
(from CNN.com )

Dozens of "(Product) Red" items will go on sale in the coming weeks by Gap Inc., [well known for their great work for the underpriviledged of the world] Apple Computer Inc.,[again, no record of any sort of work for the underprivileged] Motorola Inc.,[major defence contractor] Converse Inc.[don't mention those Mexican factories] and Emporio Armani.

Portions
[er, what portions?] of the product sales will go to The Global Fund, an organization that fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
"Some people won't put on marching boots, so we've got to get to people where they are at, and they're in the shopping malls," Bono said in a phone interview. "Now you're buying jeans and T-shirts, and you're paying for 10 women in Africa to get medication for their children with HIV."
[oh sweet Lord, save the world by buing more crap - no need to protest that something might be intrinisically wrong with the system that caused this]
The Gap, which will debut its Red line in stores on Friday, will donate half the profits to The Global Fund.
[will be interesting to see the figures from these guys]

Apple will contribute $10 [Wow, Ten whole US dollars - about €8.25 - thanks Steve] from the sale of each new red-colored iPod nano. The model, priced the same as its $199 cousins, goes on sale Friday.

After visiting the Gap, the duo walked along Michigan Avenue to an Apple store and picked up the red iPod, the first music product from the Cupertino, California-based company designed to raise money for charity. [Apple couldn't have paid enough for this endorsement so they must have been pretty pleased that they had to pay nothing (oh, except that $10 per $200 ipod that has been made for them at the factory in China that those nasty do gooders caused all the fuss about. ]

The two also stopped at Armani and Motorola stores.
"Shop 'till it stops," said Bono as he walked out of the Apple store clutching bulging shopping bags.
[sigh]

So far, the (Product) Red initiative, which began this spring in Britain, has raised more than $12 million for African AIDS programs, said Doug Piwinski, a spokesman for (Product) Red.

With Apple's iPod alone, The Global Fund stands to raise millions of dollars. During the holiday quarter in 2005, Apple sold 14 million iPods.
[yes but that was when it was a hot product - it's not now] The iPod maker also plans to donate some [some?] proceeds from a $25 iTunes Red gift card to the organization.

"I love the fact that Bono is trying to do something about this problem," Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said in a phone interview. "I've never been to Africa, but you don't have to go there to know there are a lot of people dying of AIDS there. In a small way, this is something we could do about it."
[Steve Jobs is one helluva an ass. This whole thing is such a joke compared to uncool Bill Gates who is giving $500,000,000 to research a vaccine to elminate malaria. The whole Gates thing is on a different scale. He's giving away everything and Jobs is giving nothing and admitting that he's never been to Africa but he just loves the way Bono is trying to do something. How patronising is that].

"We've moved from the philanthropy budgets to the marketing budgets, and guess what, there's no comparison in size," Bono said. "We now have some of the most creative people in commerce -- Steve Jobs, the marketing people at Gap and Motorola -- all working for the world's poor. That is so so cool."
[Oh dear Bono. The "creative" people who work in marketing at the Gap don't give a f**k about the Third World. They care about brand image and the only time they stop getting children to make the clothes is when protesters catch them at it and expose them. Please don't endorse these people. They are beneath contempt.]

Aer Lingus: The madness just keeps on coming

It only took two weeks after the flotation of Aer Lingus for the first takeover bid to occur. The offer from Ryanair of 2.80 per share (after a flotation price of 2.20) has brought about a hysteria that would be laughable if it were not so sad.

The behaviour of the Government and our so called oppostion in the guise of Olivia Mitchell has been bizarre. It seems that they didn't quite understand that if you privatise a State asset that there is a reasonable chance that other people may wish to buy it. Ryanair are being demonised as the Great Satan when they, rather than undervaluing Aer Lingus as the Board of that company stated, have in fact offered a significant premium over the value the previous owners of the airline put on it. The actions of both the pilots and the unions in using pension funds to invest in the sahreas in a bid to stop this takeover makes no sense from a commercial point of view. If they had wanted to prevent a takeover they should have done so over the last couple of years - it's too late crying now. The result of what they are doing will only undermine confidence in the company and, if they are successful in gaining over 50% of the share between the Government, the ESOP, the pilots and the union, will make the airline very unattractive to any other investors. This will cause the share price to drop and, since it is pension fund money gone into this, the cries will be heard about how they must be saved from their own folly.

It should be fun to watch over the next few months.... I stand by my claim that the sale of the airline will be regretted.