Brand Aid: Shopping Well to Save the World

Author:   Lisa Ann Richey ,  Stefano Ponte
Publisher:   University of Minnesota Press
ISBN:  

9780816665457


Pages:   288
Publication Date:   09 March 2011
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Awaiting stock   Availability explained


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Brand Aid: Shopping Well to Save the World


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Overview

'Has there ever been a better reason to shop?' asks an ad for the Product RED American Express card, telling members who use the card that buying 'cappuccinos or cashmere' will help to fight AIDS in Africa. Cofounded in 2006 by the rock star Bono, Product RED has been a particularly successful example of a new trend in celebrity-driven international aid and development, one explicitly linked to commerce, not philanthropy. In Brand Aid, Lisa Ann Richey and Stefano Ponte offer a deeply informed and stinging critique of 'compassionate consumption.' Campaigns like Product RED and its precursors, such as Lance Armstrong's Livestrong and the pink-ribbon project in support of breast cancer research, advance the expansion of consumption far more than they meet the needs of the people they ostensibly serve.

Full Product Details

Author:   Lisa Ann Richey ,  Stefano Ponte
Publisher:   University of Minnesota Press
Imprint:   University of Minnesota Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.408kg
ISBN:  

9780816665457


ISBN 10:   0816665451
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   09 March 2011
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   Awaiting stock   Availability explained

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction: Product (RED) and the Reinvention of International Aid 1. Band Aid to Brand Aid: Celebrity Experts and Expert Celebrities 2. The Rock Man’s Burden: Vanity, Value, and Virtual Salvation 3. Saving Africa: AIDS and the Rebranding of Aid 4. Hard Commerce: Corporate Social Responsibility for Distant Others 5. Doing Good by Shopping Well: The Rise of “Causumer” Culture Conclusion: Celebrities, Consumers, and Everyone Else Notes Works Cited Index

Reviews

<p> Brand Aid is an original and important contribution to the critique of international development. Lisa Ann Richey and Stefano Ponte argue that the celebritization of aid marks an important shift that in effect divests the wealthy of any responsibility for global poverty. Brand Aid is a great book. --Vinh Kim Nguyen, University of Montreal


Readers and academics interested in the ways corporate philanthropy is evolving will find this useful, as will armchair sociologists. --Publishers Weekly This is a thoroughly researched and well-written book and one that pulls no punches; you know from the very first pages how the (RED) initiative will be dissected and found wanting. Thoughtful and highly critical. --Times Higher Education


Author Information

Lisa Ann Richey is professor of international development studies at Roskilde University. She is the author of Population Politics and Development: From the Policies to the Clinics. Stefano Ponte is senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. He is the coauthor of Trading Down: Africa, Value Chains, and the Global Economy and The Coffee Paradox: Global Markets, Commodity Trade, and the Elusive Promise of Development.

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