Save Africa: The Commodification of Product Red Campaign

• In Event: The Intersection of Race/Ethnicity, Health, and Communication

Abstract

Through messages of romanticized consumption, consumers are encouraged to buy into the (PRODUCT) RED Campaign to help stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. The purpose of this research is to examine the (PRODUCT) RED campaign through a critical rhetorical analysis that questions whether the (PRODUCT) RED substitutes consumerism for social activism. Simultaneously, it explores the resistance waged by Buylesscrap.com, and challenges the subversion tactics to hegemonic corporations taking advantage of the maker/buyer disjunction.

Author

• Cindy Nhung Phu, California State University, Los Angeles