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Challenge Anneka: Where's the money going?
Most charity records are a bit shady - even if the artists give their time for free, other expenses can eat away at the donation. It's usually a better idea to buy a record you like, and give a donation equal to the price of the charity record straight to the good cause.
Even so, it's something of a surprise to discover that if you shell out £14 for the showtunes album put together by Anneka Rice on ITV the other week, just £2 goes to the Association of Children's Hospices.
[A] spokeswoman last night insisted no one except the charity is profiting from the album.
She said the £13.95 retail price was necessary to cover costs like manufacturing, distribution and retailing, and said the £2 per copy was a higher donation than normal for a charity CD.
The spokeswoman added: “Reaction to the programme has been incredible. This will help tremendously in raising awareness of the charity and a substantial donation.”
She said the £13.95 retail price was necessary to cover costs like manufacturing, distribution and retailing, and said the £2 per copy was a higher donation than normal for a charity CD.
The spokeswoman added: “Reaction to the programme has been incredible. This will help tremendously in raising awareness of the charity and a substantial donation.”
But is that even true? In all the pre-publicity for the programme we saw, the name of the charity wasn't mentioned - if the idea was to "raise awareness", would it not have made sense to at least mention the Association in the trailers, rather than having a brief shot of a telegenic tot and a vague statement that "Anneka's doing it for the kids"?
Still, the charity will at least get a boost when ITV sends a cheque for the advertising slots it sold around the programme.
It is giving the money it made, isn't it?
Meanwhile, you could give direct to the Association.
3 comments:
So those would be the same "manufacturing, distribution and retailing" costs that allow the likes of Naxos Records to retail for £4.99 and still make a profit? Clearly the spokeswoman was talking cobblers. If you assume the production costs to be the same as for a budget-label CD, they should have been able to donate at least £9 of the £13.95 retail price.
And remember, most CDs don't have hours of free primetime advertising to boost them either and actually have to pay for things like marketing.
And if "the £2 per copy was a higher donation than normal for a charity CD" then that is a scandal for every such venture.
My girlfriend upset Anneka Rice once. It was at some sort of celebrity-ish free-booze shindig in a London theatre, the name of which I was too drunk to focus on at the time. I didn't see what happened (I think I was hoovering up the canapes), but she came rushing back to tell me she'd tried to make pleasant conversation with Rice and had instead managed to make some sort of faux-pas which suggested her best days were behind her. And that she was old.
Granted, this doesn't add much to the CD story, but I think it has its place.
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