U2 keeps playing up Bank of America’s involvement in its (RED) charity to cure AIDS.
U2, one of the greatest rock bands in history (in my view), is currently playing an eight-night gig at Madison Square Garden in New York, and Bank of America is apparently getting props during the shows. According to a report in The New York Times, Bono, U2’s lead singer, singles out Bank of America for its involvement in (RED):
Bono’s bar for heroism is movable: It admits martyrs and executives and, probably, you. He sang of Nelson Mandela and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; he also described U2 as punk rockers (“for all the reasons that matter”), declared all Americans as AIDS activists because of federal funding to help those with the disease, and mentioned the contributions of Bank of America and Coca-Cola to his organizations.
Needless to say, a mention for Bank of America in a New York Times review of a U2 concert just might approach priceless.
Bank of America has been riding U2’s cool for the better part of 2015. In February during the Super Bowl, Bank of America’s contribution to (RED) facilitated the release of a new U2 song, “Invisible.” The mention during the “Invisible” ad was Bank of America’s only marketing during the most-watched football game of the year.
And Bank of America continues to net marketing benefit from its affiliation with U2. U2’s concerts are sold out, and they expose the Bank of America brand to a diverse demographic — that is ready to rock and roll.
How much Bank of America is spending is more of a question mark. The “Invisible” initiative reportedly had BofA giving up to $2 million to (RED) for downloads of the song. Bank of America’s (RED) website says the initiative has raised $7.2 million so far, with the bank matching those contributions “dollar for dollar” — up to a maximum of $2 million. Whether this is the same $2 million that BofA gave around Super Bowl time is unclear. Another part of the (RED) website says BofA “is delivering more than $10 million toward the fight against AIDS,” and yet another reference on the site indicates that in the Super Bowl campaign, “for every free download you made, we donated $1 toward (RED)’s fight against AIDS, raising a grand total of $3 million in just 24 hours.”
It sounds like Bank of America has spent around $2 million or $3 million on the charitable initiative. And that similarly sounds like money well-spent, as evidenced by the bootleg clip from U2’s performance Saturday night that appears below.