Jony Ive and Bono to Appear at Cannes Lions Festival to Discuss (RED) Partnership

The organizers of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity today announced that they will be honoring Bono with the first ever LionHeart Award later this month at the 61st annual festival. The award is being given for Bono's work with the (RED) campaign to raise funds for the fight against AIDS.

Alongside the honor, Bono and Apple design chief Jonathan Ive will participate in an on-stage interview to discuss their collaboration on the campaign, which has seen contributions from the purchase of (PRODUCT)RED Apple products reach $70 million. Ive last year also partnered with friend and designer Marc Newson to auction off a number of one-of-a-kind items, including a unique red Mac Pro and rose gold-plated EarPods, to benefit the (RED) campaign.

In an exclusive seminar for Cannes Lions delegates, Bono will join Jonathan Ive, Apple Inc’s Senior Vice President of Design, in a discussion moderated by Shane Smith, CEO and Founder of VICE Media, and introduced by Anne Finucane, Global Strategy and Marketing Officer of (RED) partner, Bank of America. Bono and Jonathan Ive will discuss the success of (RED) and [its] unique collaboration with global partners – including Apple, (RED)’s largest corporate contributor to the AIDS fight – and the record-breaking (RED) Design Auction curated by Jonathan Ive and Marc Newson. The auction resulted in $44 million for the Global Fund on World AIDS Day last year.

The 45-minute interview, which will represent a relatively rare public appearance for Ive, will take place on June 21. It is unclear whether video of the interview will be made available after the event, but we have contacted festival organizers to inquire about the possibility.

(Thanks, Joe!)