Bono loves Africa or Himself?
Once again from Tyler Cowen:
I had a professor in graduate school who often talked about cloaking private interest in public interest. Is this a case of Bono and others cloaking their personal advertising in a cloak of concern for Africa? I prefer models that assume self interest is the prime mover over models that assume people are stupid. If we reject the self interest model in this case are we really just left with stupid, stupid, stupid?
Here is the link,Advertising Age calculates that around $100 million has been spent blanketing billboards and magazines with images of Bono and other "celebrities", while the total sum raised for Africa is $18 million.
Just to be clear... Total spent on making Bono more famous = $100 million.
Total spent on drugs for Africans = $18 million.
I had a professor in graduate school who often talked about cloaking private interest in public interest. Is this a case of Bono and others cloaking their personal advertising in a cloak of concern for Africa? I prefer models that assume self interest is the prime mover over models that assume people are stupid. If we reject the self interest model in this case are we really just left with stupid, stupid, stupid?
posted by Randy at 6:47 AM
1 Comments:
What I find interesting is that Bono has become so cool to politicians. Orin Hatch has every U2 CD and they are all signed by Bono. Gov. Huntsman has a picture of himself with Bono in his office next pictures of himself with the presidents of ours and other countries. The Gov. will tell you that the picture or meeting he cherishes most was the time he met Bono (he might just say this for younger crowds or because Mary Kay told him to).
Who cares about Bono, what does he know? Why do we let politicians pass themselves off as scientists (Al Gore) and celebrities as policy experts (Bono)?
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