ARCHIVE ISSUE:

 

Volume 2 • Number 6 • 2008

● (Product)Red: (re)Branding Africa?
by Natasha Himmelman and Danai Mupotsa
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An introduction/editorial to this special issue on (Product)Red by two guest editors (a feminist researcher, and a doctorial candidate) based in South Africa.

● Refigu(red): Talking Africa and Aids in "Causumer" Culture
by Margaret Sarna-Wojcicki
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A consideration of "causumer" culture from an anthropological perspective examining discourses involved in brand engagement through the topic of the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients in Africa.

● Shoppers of the World Unite: (RED)'s Messaging and Morality in the Fight Against African AIDS
by Norma Anderson
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An examination of how (Product)RED constructs a moral/common sense imperative of long-held cultural tropes and schemas about Africa.

● (Red) Mythology
by Marinus van Niekerk
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A critical review of some of the representations of Africa disseminated through the marketing material for the (Product) Red campaign.

● (RED) Spells H. O. P. E.
by Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija
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A statement on how Africa/Africans and (RED) are not mutually exclusive as labels via a concern for human life.

● Product Red: The Marketing of African Misery
by Teresa Barnes
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This paper argues that the Product Red campaign rests on a quartet of mistaken assumptions, and that the effort also broadcasts the idea that social change is easy.

● Desire and the Enrapture of Capitalist Consumption: Product Red, Africa, and the Crisis of Sustainability
by Percy C. Hintzen
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An examination of the Vanity Fair special edition dedicated to Product Red arguing that it is an exemplar of colonial rationality sedimented in the project of globalization.

● Shop and Do Good?
by Katarina Jungar and Elaine Salo
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A comparison of the strategies employed by (Product) Red and the South African HIV-activist group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), thus contrasting the commercial campaign with an activist campaign to show the kinds of discourses about AIDS produced and reproduced in both campaigns.

● The (Product) Red Man's Burden: Charity, Celebrity, and the Contradictions of Coevalness
by Zine Magubane
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A look at two discursive moments associated with the Product Red campaign via Vanity Fair and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

● Home Lands - Land Marks
by Sarah-Jane Johnson
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A review of the first notable show of South African art in Britain since 1994, reflecting some of the realities of the rainbow nation.

● The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing the Fight Against AIDS in Africa
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a book review by Babalwa Sibango

● Jonny Steinberg's Three Letter Plague
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a book review by Emma O'Shaughnessy

● Announcements
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