Bono’s (red) campaign to save lives in Africa: Shop (read: indulge your American consumerism) to help fight AIDS in Africa, a serious, good, immense cause. It’s part of The Global Fund.

In one respect it’s a good ploy, capitalizing on a well-known characteristic of America to reach your end. But does the end justify the means? No, a thousand times no, as I became convinced in my numerous philosophy classes and in life. The end does not justify the means. Couldn’t people do more good by not buying the new toy (shirts at Gap, Razr phones from Sprint, etc.) and giving the entire purchase price to the cause? Granted, this way (Bono’s way, and Oprah’s way) people you are around become instantly aware (if they’ve noticed the advertising of this campaign, anyway) that you support the cause. That’s good, because it may induce peer pressure to get them involved. But will it actually get enough more purchases that it would best the initial full purchase price? Probably not.

People may buy the items because they’re stylish, or because they like the color red, even if they don’t care (or know) about the campaign. This would add to the total haul.

Apparently the campaign’s founders claim people wouldn’t donate the cost of a new iPod, and they may be (sadly) right — but would they donate the cost of half an iPod? Or of half a T-shirt? I think it could happen. I’ve done such things.

Disclosure: I bought a GAP shirt, inspi(red).

I had a gift card to spend at GAP, and marketing for a good cause is a much better cause than giving all of the money to GAP. Sure, GAP gets its cut (half) on its (red) products — those items cost more to buy than other comparable items in the store — but I guess at least I’m helping to get the word out about a worthy cause.

It still makes more sense to me for people to donate.

If you must make a purchase: Buy an independent-designed, shirt to support your cause: More of the funds will be given toward the cause. Example: I recently bought a T-shirt on Etsy, from Saving Darfur to be exact. Right there in the shop it states where the proceeds have gone, exactly. It’s easier to believe that a (much) higher percentage of the sale will go toward the cause, rather than lining the pocketbook of the (greedy) merchants. I’d had my eye on this shirt for a while, and I’m glad I finally stepped out.

The (red) campaign has additional (unintended, I’m sure) repercussions for nonprofits as a whole, per this piece here.