Reply To: Humble Bundle – IK Multimedia Pro Sound Suite

[Peter DeLegge]

I know no one wants to hear my old stories — but… Ziff Davis is taking the Red model — a campaign I worked on early on.

Basically, it’s exploiting a charity to bring in for profit sales. Don’t ever mistake it for actual charity. There’s a charity involved, but they’re a tiny piece of it — it’s really just a promotional technique.

At first I found it profoundly offensive and ethically problematic. It took Bono to pragmatically convince me that charities are struggling and that this model may be what keeps some charities funded. In Ziff Davis’ case, they’re a publisher. For profit. The gimmick is to leverage a charity to make the cause look more legit and altruistic, so that people can get a deal and feel as if they’re doing good without actually doing good. It works, but just know, if you want to help a charity, this only sends 5% towards charity and is primarily just a technique to promote for profit sales.

Okay, so if you stayed this long, so Bono came into my office for a visit.  I completely forgot he was coming and was too late to meet him.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

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