Rethinking the role of brands, celebrities and consumers in development financing

'Brand Aid' is an emerging form of development financing that is based on three components: a branded product, one or more aid celebrities, and a cause.

Brand Aid is the combined meaning of 'aid to brands' and 'brands that provide aid'. It is aid to brands, a mechanism that helps selling products, profiling a brand in the media, and building brand value. It is also aid financing that is provided through branding. Corporations attach their name to a good cause and donate a portion of the profits that arise from the sale of specific products. Consumers are asked to buy these products so that they can feel good by helping 'distant others'. Celebrities mediate the communication between brands, consumers, and international development agencies. As a response to the crisis of legitimacy in international aid to Africa, Brand Aid also helps to rebrand aid itself and aid to Africa in particular.

In a new article in Environment and Planning A, DIIS senior researcher Stefano Ponte and ISG-RUC professor Lisa Ann Richey examine how celebrities push the boundaries of 'causumerism' (shopping for a better world) through the case study of Product(RED). Ponte and Richey argue that celebrity validation, backed up by iconic brands, facilitates at least three shifts in the realm of causumerism: from 'conscious consumption' (mainly based on product-related information) to 'compassionate consumption' (mainly based on the management of consumer affect); from attention to the product and its production process toward the medical treatment of the 'people with the problem' (AIDS patients in Africa); and from addressing the causes of problems to solving their manifestations.

You can follow or contribute to the ongoing debate on 'Brand Aid' via dedicated Blog, Facebook and Twitter sites.