Chicago Tribune - May 15, 2006
Mike Hughlett, Tribune staff reporter, mhughlett@tribune.com

Bono's Product Red project was expected to announce Monday in London that Schaumburg-based Motorola will be Product Red's fifth major corporate partner, according to a source close to Motorola.

Product Red is a brand, and products associated with it pony up a portion of sales to charity. Motorola, the world's second-largest mobile phonemaker, will offer a red version of its Slvr, a model fashioned after its popular Razr phone.

The red Slvr will join a red American Express credit card; a Gap T-shirt made in Africa and available in red (and other colors); Armani sunglasses emblazoned with a Product Red logo; and Converse Chuck Taylor All Star sneakers done in an African motif.

Project Red was launched in January by Bono, frontman for supergroup U2, and Bobby Shriver, a record producer, member of the Kennedy family and city councilman in Santa Monica, Calif.

Some profits from Product Red items go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. For instance, 1 percent of all consumer spending on the American Express red card flows to the fund.

Details on contributions from the Slvr haven't been released. The red Slvr is expected to be sold in Europe first and later in North America, a source close to Motorola said.

The red Slvr won't likely provide a boost in sales for Motorola. "This will be a blip on the radar," said Ed Snyder, a stock analyst at Charter Equity Research.

But the association with Product Red is certainly a positive development from a public-relations viewpoint. And a link with Bono can only help boost Motorola's quest to further position its brand as hip.

The company has been trying to contemporize its brand during the last several years through edgy advertising and marketing associations with MTV and hip-hop artists.

The sleek Razr phone gave Motorola a key product to back up the fashionable image push particularly in Europe, where Motorola has long trailed Finnish phone giant Nokia.

Bono was in the Chicago area recently visiting with Motorola executives. He has long campaigned against poverty and disease, meeting with global leaders between putting out albums with U2.

Bono's Project Red is a new twist on the not-so-new idea of appealing to consumers' social conscience.

For years, some mutual funds have specialized in investments in more socially responsible companies. More recently, Starbucks has been touting its Fair Trade coffee, beans bought from farmers who meet certain labor and environmental standards.

While Project Red has a philanthropic aim, Bono said in a recent interview with the BBC that the project is a commercial venture.

"Philanthropy is like hippy music, holding hands," he told the BBC. "This is more like punk rock, hip-hop, this should feel like hard commerce."

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