Apple's latest (RED) campaign pushes to end age of AIDS

SAN FRANCISCO — For Aaron Marshall, tweaking his popular photo-makeover app Over to help Apple's two-week (RED) campaign to fight AIDS was a simple decision. The problem is at its worst just outside his front door.

"Here in South Africa, we stand to be impacted most by this campaign," says Marshall, a Portland, Ore., native who moved his start-up to Cape Town after doing volunteer work in the area. In South Africa, nearly one in five people has HIV/AIDS.

"Working with Apple on this project was just a convergence of things we value the most," says Marshall, whose app will offer specially designed (RED) artwork and fonts during the campaign. "We help people create awesome artwork, but now they can do that and also help people live longer."

On Monday, Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple kicks off a two-week multi-pronged fundraising campaign for (RED), the charity started by U2 lead singer Bono and Bobby Shriver. It includes 25 partnering app-makers, from Angry Birds to Toca Boca, which will donate all proceeds from purchases of their apps or in-app upgrades to (RED).

Additional funds will be raised through the purchase of Apple products. On Nov. 28, Black Friday, Apple will give those purchasing select hardware (RED) gift cards. On Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, every product in all Apple retail outlets and online is (RED), with a portion of those sales also all going to (RED)'s partner, The Global Fund, which fights AIDS as well as tuberculosis and malaria in a range of developing nations.

Since (RED)'s founding in 2006, the charity has distributed $275 million to The Global Fund. Some $75 million of that has come from its various partnerships with Apple, which date back to the first (RED) iPod Nano in 2006.

Tech companies and personalities seem to have caught the giving bug of late.

The recent Ebola crisis caused Google co-founder Larry Page and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally donate $15 million and $25 million, respectively, as well as to create fundraising campaigns on their sites. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has committed $100 million to the same fight.

In the Steve Jobs' era, Apple wasn't particularly known for its altruistic bent. But since taking the reins in 2011, CEO Tim Cook has gradually put his socially conscious stamp on the company.

That has included everything from making public statements about Apple's need to produce green products, sometimes at the expense of profits, to his support of gay and lesbian rights. (Last month, Cook wrote an article saying he was gay.)

While Apple's connection to (RED) isn't new, the scale and scope of this two-week effort represents a far more visible effort to link the company to good causes. For many companies, that's just good business, as such campaigns often also serve as effective marketing tools to lure and keep socially-conscious consumers.

"I'd argue this is just another one of a range of significant things we have done over the years, including (raising money for) the Red Cross and donating $100 million in computers to schools," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president for Internet software and services, told USA TODAY. "We focus on areas where we have expertise and can help."

No one can predict what the company's two-week project will raise. But given that, according to the (RED) website, antiretroviral medicine costs an average of 40 cents a day, if Apple's (RED) project were to raise $10 million, that would provide daily medication for a year to some 70,000 people.

"I've been a (RED) supporter for many years (because) the work they do is unassailable, and I'm always thrilled to support (a cause) particularly when it involves food," says Mario Batali, who, as one of the chefs contributing to the Kitchen Stories Cookbook app, came up with a (RED) pizza featuring short rib, roasted tomato and Fontina cheese.

He adds that he's eager to support a project that "helps get us closer to an AIDS-free generation."

That point may well be in sight. This year marked a "tipping point in the AIDS fight, where we had more people getting treatment than coming down with the disease," says (RED) CEO Deborah Dugan, adding that she hopes (RED) is a "gateway drug to activism" for many consumers.

"When you pick the (RED) product over the white one, you're saying you think about the world around you," says Dugan. "We're thrilled that a company like Apple continues to bring this cause to the forefront. Around 650 babies are born every day with HIV/AIDS. But it doesn't have to be that way."