U2 unconcerned about YouTube furore

Hot Press understands that there’s absolutely no concern in the U2 camp over four tracks from the band’s new album which leaked onto YouTube over the weekend. Indeed, there is some surprise that the story has been afforded such a high level of exposure, given that the ‘recordings’ were of such poor – or rather [...]

Ready to Win Some Free CDs? Hope So…

photo of boxes to be mailedYou probably know that we’ve been giving away all kinds of CDs over the last couple weeks — here’s a photo I took a few days ago right before a trip to the post office. Some CDs have been given away via our Twitter page, some in our Facebook group, others via our news mailing list and even our forum.

Now it’s time to give away some CDs via our blog. Ready?

The Prize

The winner of this giveaway will get a full set of all three remastered deluxe CD sets: Boy, October, and War.

How to Win

Follow these steps:

  1. On your own blog or web page, write a post or article about @U2.
  2. After the article is written, come back to this post and put a link to it in the comments — this is your contest entry. If you don’t come back and leave a comment/link to your blog post/article, we won’t know about it.
  3. Be patient while we choose a winner.

That’s pretty simple, don’t you think? Don’t know what to write about? Here are some ideas:

  • Make a list telling your readers about the Top 3 (or more) things you love about @U2.
  • Alternatively, make a list of things we can do better! Tell us what you wish we offered or were doing.
  • Write about your favorite @U2 event/party.
  • Write about your favorite/least favorite @U2 news interview, article, essay, etc.
  • Seriously … anything you can think of!

You’ve got a week to do this. We’ll accept entries until end-of-day on Tuesday, August 26. At that point, @U2 will read through the entries that we find in the comments below and choose one winner.

Good luck!

This is a post from the @U2 Blog.

Ready to Win Some Free CDs? Hope So…

Online campaign mixes music with safe-sex message

TORONTO - A new campaign to promote HIV testing is trying to reach young Canadians where they’re at - on the Internet and listening to tunes.

And it’s relying on the talents of rockers U2 and hip-hop sensation Mary J. Blige to get them to pay attention.One Life, an online initiative launched Monday at luvu2.ca, targets sexually active youth ages 18-30 and urges them to practise safe sex and get tested for HIV.

It aims to spread the word through an online video set to U2’s hit song One, recorded with Blige and made available by the artists at no charge.

The campaign is a collaboration of Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, which makes pharmaceuticals including drugs to treat HIV-AIDS, and Universal Music Canada.

It also involved AIDS service organizations, medical clinics and testing facilities, and physicians.The companies, hoping to create a buzz on networks, forums and blogs, are pledging a $1 corporate donation to HIV-AIDS prevention groups every time a viewer forwards the video.

Murray Jose, executive director of the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation and a spokesperson for the campaign, said he’s worried the evolution of medications to treat HIV-AIDS has created a false sense of security among youth, with some mistakenly believing the disease is curable.

He said testing is critical because one in three people infected with HIV don’t know they have it.There is “a huge need” to keep repeating messages about the importance of protected sex and HIV tests to every new crop of teens, he added, and the Internet campaign is an innovative way to grab their attention and point them to more information.

While the rate of new reported cases of HIV has declined overall in Toronto, recent health statistics show an increase among those ages 20-24.

The One Life website includes a search tool to help people find local testing facilities and links to sources of sexual health and HIV information.

Alex McKay, research co-ordinator of the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada, says the fact that celebrities are lending their names for the promotion of sexual health is “laudable” and long overdue.

- CanadaEast.com

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Online campaign mixes music with safe-sex message