MTV Brings Message of Hope from Africa to America with ONE

Washington, DC– ONE announced today the MTV broadcast premiere of its new campaign to reach and engage millions of Americans in the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty.

“The “ONE Click Spot” will air as part of an MTV News report during the highly-popular “Total Request Live” on Monday, April 10th and stars some of the biggest names in music and Hollywood, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, Gwen Stefani, Dave Matthews, Coldplay, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Orlando Bloom, Salma Hayek, Heidi Klum, Jewel, 50 Cent and Bono. In the spot, each clicks their fingers to show that every three seconds, a child dies of AIDS and extreme poverty-and that millions of Americans have the power to come together as ONE and save lives in Africa and the world’s poorest countries.

The spots in support of ONE will continue to roll out across MTV, MTV2, MTVU and MTV Overdrive, inviting viewers to visit WWW.ONE.ORG to learn more about the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty and what they and America can do to help create hope and opportunity for the world’s poorest people. “MTV is honored to host the ONE SPOT across our platforms in our continuing efforts to bring awareness to global AIDS and poverty,” said Ian Rowe, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Public Affairs. “It is possible to end extreme poverty, so we hope it will be another tool to engage our audience on these dire issues and inspire them to be a part of the fight.”

The MTV broadcast builds on the success of the historic Live 8 events and airs on the one year anniversary of the 2005 premiere of the first “ONE SPOT”, seen by millions across MTV Networks and Viacom outlets. Close to 1 million people attended 2005’s Live 8 concert in Philadelphia, joining with the 3.8 billion people around the world who turned up, tuned in or logged on to ask America and the world’s leaders to deliver a historic deal on debt, HIV/AIDS and trade for Africa at the 2005 Gleneagles G8 Summit.

On a wave of support from the LIVE 8 concerts, the G8 leaders met five days later for a landmark meeting that achieved more than any G8 in history. Leaders promised $25 billion more for Africa and $50 billion more globally by 2010 and agreed to provide write off over $50 billion in crushing debt for 38 of the world’s poorest countries and give access to HIV/AIDS drugs not just to everyone who can afford them, but to everyone who needs them. The G8 also agreed to provide basic schooling for every child by 2015, giving the over 100 million children currently out of school around the world the opportunity to receive an education.

“One thing that all these leaders agree on is that to fight extreme stupid poverty, getting kids in schools is one of the best investments we can make” said U2 lead singer and DATA (Debt AIDS Trade Africa) co-founder Bono.

If kept, the G8’s historic commitments could save over 4.5 million lives a year by 2010. Today, over 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day, and every day in Africa, HIV/AIDS kills 6,600 people, 8,500 people are infected with the HIV virus and 1,400 newborn babies are infected during childbirth. ONE is helping Americans raise their voices as ONE against the emergency of AIDS and extreme poverty, joining together to ask leaders to do more to change and save millions of lives in the world’s poorest countries.

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ABOUT ONE: THE CAMPAIGN TO MAKE POVERTY HISTORY ONE (www.one.org) is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans – ONE by ONE – to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. ONE is a coalition of 2 million people and over 70 of the nation’s leading relief, humanitarian and advocacy organizations. For more information, please visit: www.one.org