How does buying a red cell phone help a child in Africa suffering from AIDS? Consumerism=Humanitarianism?

You're walking through the mall and you step into your local GAP store. The sale rack is in shambles but the centre table is neat and tidy. The setting appeals to you and you walk to closer to take a look as to what is so organized at the table. RED. It is sea of RED apparel, $150 jacket, a $50 t-shirt, a $70 long sleeve, you put down the items and walk away. Was this your reaction when you first set your eyes on the line of RED clothing featured at the GAP? Did you have any clue as to why the clothing cost so much money? So what do you do when you learn that when you purchase any RED apparel that proceeds of the sale will go towards AIDS benefit for people in Africa? Does that prompt you to buy that t-shirt just a little more? The same goes for any product that is related to RED, such as the RED Motorola RZR cell phone and the RED iPOD nano. Is there something in the back of your head that gives you a little nudge to buy the product because proceeds go to children suffering from AIDS?So the question remains, how does buying a red cell phone help a child in Africa suffering from AIDS? Buying a red cell phone is an incentive to get people to buy products but at the same time allow them to feel good that buying red cell phone is also providing medicine for a child with AIDS. This is truly placing consumerism on the top of things that society is becoming a product of. We are a society of buying what is in demand, what is the most popular, the most technological, and the most expensive. Consumerism is taking advantage of society's weakness. The average consumer is probably associated with certain brand names that they are attached too and won't buy the same product of a different brand name. Society has become brand name consumers and consumerism is growing due to that fact. Consumerism does not equal humanitarianism because there are different principals to those two concepts. We want to promote humanitarianism and we don’t want consumerism to grow as it consumes enough of society as it is. Humanitarianism should come from within a person who believes in the cause that they are supporting and understands where, how, and what their money is doing to make the lives of those less fortunate better. Celebrity endorsements of products raises awareness to causes that they believe in and want others to believe in as well, but placing large price tags on red cell phones may be crossing the line just a little bit. At times, society needs a push to direct them in the right direction and celebrities are the go to people in order to raise awareness to a cause. But we don’t have to use products to make us feel better that we are helping those who are less fortunate. We should be able to dig into our pockets and donate money or our time and help instead of rewarding ourselves with a $50 t-shirt that had 10% of the final sale go towards children with AIDS in Africa.

In the end, the money donated goes to the same cause – one that will benefit the lives of those less fortunate and hopefully bring a string of light to their lives. We should feel good that we took money out of our own pockets to help those who are ill and suffer from many problems. We do not have to buy a red cell phone in order to make ourselves feel good. Charity comes from the heart, not from incentives in the form of red cell phones.

silentsanchez.