[lbo-talk] why Bono sucks

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Mar 8 14:30:08 PST 2007


[more from Popbitch]


>> Re-branding Bono <<
>>

Charity doesn't always begin at home

Vanity Fair have invited "pop-humanitarian"

Bono to be guest editor of the July issue, to

try and "rebrand Africa". Some magazines

have been sharing some other facts about Bono:

* In the year since it was founded, his Red

campaign (licensed to Gap, Motorola, Apple etc)

has raised $18 million - but companies have

spent $100 million to market it.

* Bono doesn't invest his own money in Red.

* Apple sells a Special Edition U2 iPod. Its

profits are not donated to Red.

* U2 made $389m from the recent Vertigo tour.

Its revenue was then funnelled through

companies mostly registered in Ireland and

structured to minimize taxes.

* U2 moved its music publishing company to

the Netherlands from Ireland in June 2006, six

months before Ireland ended a tax exemption

on musicians' royalty income.

* Richard Murphy, adviser to lobbying group the

Tax Justice Network, says "This is somebody

who's exceptionally rich taking the opportunity

to shift his tax burden to somebody else, but

then asking governments around the world to

spend that tax take in the way that he would like."

More on this: http://tinyurl.com/2ssocz http://adage.com/article?article_id=115287



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