The Idea:

If the ONE Campaign were to sell food products in supermarkets throughout the world, and use the profit from those sales to help end global poverty, the labels of these ONE Campaign food products would be a powerful vehicle for bringing poverty awareness into the households of millions of citizens throughout the world.

This innovative way of disseminating poverty information can streamline the mobilizing of citizen action on poverty, and extend The ONE Campaign's reach to dining rooms and kitchens everywhere.

As the following material describes, a ONE "Food Products for Poverty" campaign would be easy to organize, (as outlined below) and is, in financial and other terms, a virtually risk-free venture. 

To read a comprehensive 24 page proposal describing how ONE can create a CELEBRITY BUY AID campaign to implement the product labels idea, 


Introduction: The Significance of the 0.7 Percent Pledge

In 1970, the world’s twenty-two richest countries agreed that 0.7 percent of their annual income, or GNP, would be required to help the poorest countries develop their economies, and at that time they all pledged to donate this amount annually in Official Development Assistance, (ODA). As of 2007, only five countries are fulfilling that pledge, and the U.S. contribution now stands at 0.22 percent of GNP, or less than 1/3rd of the amount we promised. (Denmark now donates .81%, The Netherlands .82%, Luxembourg .87%, Norway .93%, and Sweden .92%)

Please see Jeffrey Sach’s website for more information;
http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/endofpoverty/oda.html

Citizen mobilization is vital to persuading the seventeen pledge-delinquent countries to finally honor that commitment within a reasonable and responsible time frame.
 

1)  For absolute poverty to end in a timely manner, more financial aid must be provided to the poorest countries from the world’s rich countries.

2)  Aside from debt cancellation and trade reform, the most simple and direct way to end absolute poverty is for the twenty-two richest countries to honor their pledge to devote 0.7 percent of their GNP, to this work.

3)  Only through wider citizen demand will political leaders of the richest countries move speedily to honor the 0.7 percent pledge.

4)  Citizens haven’t pressured their leaders to honor the 0.7 percent pledge largely because very few people are aware of the pledge, and of certain important facts about poverty.

5)  Because of limited funding, NGOs working to end poverty have had limited success in educating and mobilizing the public.

6)  Considering the validity of the five above statements, the next step in ending absolute poverty is for NGOs to develop and implement an effective,  affordable, and focused large scale public information campaign.

As you’re probably aware, actor Paul Newman and author Alex Hotchner have been selling food products and donating ONE hundred percent of their after-tax profits to charity since 1982.  Through their strategy of outsourcing their manufacturing and distribution, over the last twenty-four years their company, Newman’s Own, has gone from selling one salad dressing to offering a line of over forty products, and raising over $200 million for charitable causes. Their hugely successful business model is very relevant to the public outreach campaign I’ll be describing.

During their first twenty-nine months in business, from 1982 through 1984, Newman’s Own sold an average of 7.7 million bottles of salad dressing per year commanding a three percent market share. In today’s larger market, each one percent share of the salad dressing market would amount to at least 5.5 million bottles per year.

From August, 1982 until February, 1983, (Their first six months in business) Newman’s Own generated sales of $502,000.00 and a profit of $65,000.00. Their after-tax profit was 12.9 percent of total sales revenue.

From January, 1, 1983 until December 31, 1984, (Their first full year in business) Newman’s Own generated sales of $3,204,000.00 and a profit of $397,000.00. Their after-tax profit was 12.3 percent of total sales revenue

The very important key feature of the global poverty awareness campaign I’m describing is that virtually every food product has a label, and many of these product labels provide more than ample space for letting shoppers know about global poverty and how, together, we can end it forever.

As we know, few people are aware of the 0.7 percent pledge and it’s importance to ending poverty. Let’s explore the prospect of having the label on every one of the over 2.58 million bottles of salad dressing that The ONE Campaign could easily sell, (commanding a one percent market share) during the next year briefly describe the 0.7 percent pledge.  Taking into account that shoppers would probably buy just one bottle before actually having tasted the dressing, and that these shoppers seem clearly interested in helping end world hunger, how many shoppers do you guess would read that statement about the 0.7 pledge on the ONE Campaign salad dressing label before buying the dressing, or will eventually read it once its in their kitchen?  Let's predict that two thirds of those shoppers would read the 0.7 statement.

So, over the course of one year, because of the ONE Campaign’s salad dressing labels, 1.5 million more people would be aware of the 0.7 percent pledge.

Now, lets’ explore how much profit The ONE Campaign would earn from selling 2.58 million bottles of salad dressing over the course of a year.  In the early years, Newman’s Own generated about 5 times more profit from their products than the food industry pre-tax standard of 3.4 percent of total sales. They were able to do this, in large part, by spending absolutely no money on advertising. Since The ONE Campaign would be promoting its salad dressing through this same cost-free publicity model, (as I explain later) I think we can confidently use the Newman’s Own earning’s model for our ONE Campaign product profit analysis.

Selling 2.58 million bottles of dressing at a mid-market price of $2.39 each would earn $6,170,000 in total sales revenue, and 12.5 percent of that revenue would earn The ONE Campaign an annual profit of $770,775.

So, by selling 2.58 million bottles over the course of a year, The ONE Campaign could educate 1.5 million people about how they can help end poverty, and earn a profit of $770,775 to be used in whatever ways they wish toward mobilizing citizen action on poverty.

You are beginning to see how a product labels-based poverty awareness campaign can be a powerful and financially sound way of mobilizing citizen action on global poverty.  You may be asking yourself “Well, that’s great, but how would The ONE Campaign go about selling these food products?”

Here are some things you may not know about marketing food products.  Let’s continue to use Newman's Own and salad dressing as our model.  Using the Newman’s Own business model, in 2006, this product can go from concept to supermarket shelves with an investment of between $40 and $70 thousand dollars. (In 1982, Newman’s Own marketed its salad dressing with a total of $20,000 in start-up costs).

Today, in 2006, if The ONE Campaign’s dressing won just ONE percent of a salad dressing market now worth $1.4 billion, that high end figure of $70 thousand would be recouped in under one month ($145,000.00), and the dressing would earn $1,750,000.00 in profit in its first year.
 

Outside of a supermarket in White Plains, New York, USA, 100 shoppers were asked the following question:

Based on this survey, we can conservatively predict that if shoppers saw The ONE Campaign’s salad dressing in their local supermarket, at least ONE percent of them would buy it.  As you can see, those sales would easily cover the entire cost of manufacturing and marketing the product.

So, we have a good case for product labels as an affordable and effective strategy for informing the public about poverty, and the $40-70 thousand dollars in start-up costs is well within the financial reach of The ONE Campaign.
 

Now, you may be thinking to yourself; “Sure, The ONE Campaign can market food products, but without an advertising budget, how will anyone know the products are out there in supermarkets for sale?”

Well, here’s how Newman and Hotchner solved that problem, and how their strategy can be easily ramped up to become even more effective for products sold by The ONE Campaign.

Newman and Hotchner rented out a small bar in upper Manhattan called Hanratty’s for an evening, and staged a minor media event. They invited reporters and camera crews from all of the New York newspapers and from the Associated Press, a few movie people like critic Gene Shalit, a few food critics, and the CEO’s of many of the supermarket chains.

The event immediately received wide national and international coverage, and within days Newman's Own was inundated with orders from supermarkets like Shopwell, A&P, Stop & Shop and others.

So, by staging a publicity event like the one Newman and Hotchner staged, The ONE Campaign could bring however many food products it wished to sell to help fund an end to poverty into supermarkets throughout the world, and let shoppers everywhere know that these products were available for purchase at their local market.

Here is how The ONE Campaign’s product launch event would work:

As you know, about twenty years ago, musicians began using their celebrity power to help victims of famine and extreme poverty.  Band Aid brought together forty-four musicians, and forty-two musicians came together for USA for Africa.  Since then, many actors, actresses and other celebrities have joined this effort.  For example, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Pat Robertson, Kate Hudson, Rick Warren, Jamie Foxx, Jars of Clay, Penelope Cruz, Dave Matthews, Salma Hayek, George Clooney, Bill Gates and many other celebrities are now supporting the ONE campaign.

Celebrity power is the key feature of the event the ONE Campaign would stage to introduce the global public to their new line of poverty-ending food products.  Paul Newman attracted enough publicity from his small event to sell 4.5 million bottles of salad dressing during the subsequent twelve months.  Can you imagine how much publicity and sales, say, twenty to forty celebrities would bring in from a much larger ONE Campaign event launching twenty to forty food products that ONE's celebrities would be, essentially, endorsing?

Ownership Options

I say “endorsing," however, there are actually several options for how the celebrities could be involved in the campaign, and who would own the companies.  The common feature to all of these options is that every product label would bear a celebrities’ name and image, along with a brand name for the entire product line that might be called something like “ONE World Foods.”

Option 1 would be to follow the example of Newman’s Own, and have each of the celebrities own their  company.  They would run it like Paul Newman did, as what’s known as an “S” corporation that requires them to donate all of their profit before December 31 of each year.  Under this option, the celebrities would each put up the $40-70 thousand dollars in startup costs per product.

Under option 2, a group of about twenty to forty poverty NGOs would each own a food company, and use their tax-exempt status to earn higher revenues.  With this option, the celebrities would be lending their name and image to the packaging, and, hopefully assuming a role in the product selection process and the product launch event.

Along from the tax benefit, this option would provide the advantage of granting each NGO full control over how its earnings would be used to end poverty. This control would, naturally, enable each NGO to apply its  earnings to its own programs.

Option 3 would be best for NGOs with very limited finances.  Under this option, a group of several NGOs would partner together to divide start-up financing so that these costs would be affordable to each of them. They would, together, agree on how profits would be distributed among themselves, and how product label space would be utilized.

Under Option 4, The ONE Campaign would secure the entire financing for the twenty to forty food products as approximated below, and determine exactly how the product profits would be used.

Start up for twenty products at $40,000 per product:    $800,000.00
Start up for twenty products at $70,000 per product:    $140,000.00
Start up for forty products at $40,000 per product:     $1,600,000.00
Start up for forty products at $70,000 per product:     $2,800,000.00
 

With all of these options, the campaign would be planned, coordinated, implemented, and promoted by The ONE Campaign.  This organized collaboration would streamline, and save money on product selection, packaging and label design, and campaign promotion.

Celebrity Power!

So, twenty to forty celebrities like Bono, Brad Pitt, and Salma Hayek would each endorse a food product, and appear in person, (or by video feed) at The ONE Campaign’s international product launch event.  As compared with the Newman’s Own event, how much more publicity do you think The ONE Campaign's event would attract?  Let’s guess that ONE's event would draw ten times more publicity.

Can we reasonably expect that this wider publicity would result in proportionally stronger sales?  Let’s predict that it would.

Again, and most importantly, as these profits are generated, many millions of people throughout the world would be reached with important information about poverty through The ONE Campaign's product labels.

This project is VERY ambitious, but as we’ve seen, it can be conducted at virtually no risk.  it's potential for earning profits and for mobilizing citizen action on global poverty is unprecedented.

1.  The ONE Campaign is already exclusively focused on public mobilization rather than fundraising or providing services, and has already assembled an international coalition of poverty NGOs.

2.   Under Bono’s leadership, the ONE Campaign has already brought together many celebrities to work with them.  ONE has also established a network of contacts that would enable them to easily recruit the twenty to forty celebrities needed for the food products campaign.

Here is a quick rundown of how The ONE Campaign would put together their “Food Products for Poverty” campaign:

1. They would first recruit the twenty to forty celebrities that would lend their names and likenesses to the products.

2. Next, they would secure the start-up financing that will be used to launch the twenty to forty products.

3. The ONE Campaign would then recruit a few food industry professionals, (preferably working pro-bono) to advise them regarding the kinds of food products they should market.

4. Their next step would be to tap into the marketing and advertising resources of a few poverty NGOs in order to create the packaging and label designs for each product.

5. At the same time, The ONE Campaign would select the products they wish to sell, and then outsource their manufacturing and distribution.

6. Finally, ONE would organize and conduct the launch event that would introduce the international public to the celebrities and the food products.

Get hold of a copy of Newman and Hotchner’s book, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good.  There, they explain exactly how, with only twenty thousand dollars they put together Newman’s Own and launched their first product.  You may know Alex Hotchner as the author of the best-selling biography of Earnest Hemingway.  I assure you that the book is a fast, informative, and entertaining read.

This recommendation is so important, that it bears repeating:  Buy or borrow Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good, and see for yourself how easily, with absolutely no food marketing experience and with an investment of only twenty thousand dollars, Newman and Hotchner put together Newman’s Own and launched their salad dressing.

You can buy it used through AddAll, new/used through Amazon, or borrow it through your local library.