it’s time to have another try.
Some interesting little titbits in this weeks PopBitch, yeah I know it’s not meant to be taken that seriously but anyway…
In the year since it was founded, his Red campaign (licensed to Gap, Motorola, Apple etc) has raised $18 million – but companies have spent $100 million to market it.
Bono doesn’t invest his own money in Red.
Apple sells a Special Edition U2 iPod. Its profits are not donated to Red.
U2 made $389m from the recent Vertigo tour. Its revenue was then funnelled through companies mostly registered in Ireland and structured to minimise taxes.
U2 moved its music publishing company to the Netherlands from Ireland in June 2006, six months before Ireland ended a tax exemption on musicians’ royalty income.
Richard Murphy, adviser to lobbying group the Tax Justice Network, says “This is somebody who’s exceptionally rich taking the opportunity to shift his tax burden to somebody else, but then asking governments around the world to spend that tax take in the way that he would like.”
A nice couple of articles online at Bloomberg and Advertising Age.