I love meeting Ypulse readers in person -- it reaffirms that I'm not posting into the ether. Last night I met a reader named Bich who used to work at MySpace and now works at Red. If you don't know about Red, you'll know more after reading this article in today's New York Times, reg. required, and even more after I hopefully will post an interview their president, Tamsin Smith, later next week when they officially launch. Red was created by Bono and Bobby Shriver (yes, brother of Maria). From the Times article:

"Products from Converse, Gap, Motorola and Armani will be sold under the Red brand. Promoters want the companies to make money.

Those companies, along with Converse and American Express, created the new products, which bear the brand name Red and are to begin appearing in stores this month. The companies are committed to selling the products for at least five years, and plan to donate part of their profits to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

If the Red products sell the way the companies' other products do, the fund stands to gain hundreds of millions of dollars annually -- enough to provide AIDS medications to hundreds of thousands of Africans each year."

While Red isn't specifically aimed at teens, some of the brands like Converse, Gap and Motorola are obviously teen friendly, and as we know from past posts, young people like to express their social consciousness through their purchases. I think the bigger challenge is getting more people (young and old) to care about what's happening in Africa -- whether it's AIDS or genocide in Darfur (Bich also tipped me off to this Rock for Darfur campaign, which just launched on MySpace). I think people tend to want to help their neighbors or get involved in efforts that will directly benefit a cause affecting someone they know (think breast cancer, Katrina relief, homelessness). That said, since this is as easy as just buying something cool, I think it will be very successful. It also makes certain brands, which may have been boycotted by young people in the past for unfair labor practices, look a lot better.

On a related note, Reuters reported on a study about young people and their involvement (or lack thereof) in civic life. The results are a mixed bag. The bad news from the study:

"Nearly two-thirds of young Americans are disengaged from political and civic life and only a quarter regularly vote...The study also found an increase in anti-immigrant sentiment among Americans age 15 to 25 over the past four years and a drop in acceptance of homosexuals."

The good news:

"Despite the large number of disengaged youths, the survey showed young people were more involved in civic and political life than was generally recognized....

Seventy-two percent of youths said they followed the news at least some of the time to see what was happening in government and public affairs.

Thirty-six percent said they had volunteered in the past year, 35 percent had tried to sway other people's opinions about electoral issues, 30 percent had boycotted a product and 24 percent had raised money for charity."

Related:

Activating Youth Activism
The Death of Outrage

Posted by anastasia