Trade justice activism is messy, uncertain, nonlinear, all over the place, inspiring, worrying, powerful.
On followthethings.com âshoppingâ has an important double meaning.
On the one hand, it means âto seek or examine goods, property, etc. offered for saleâ.
On the other hand, it means âto behave treacherously toward; inform on; betrayâ or âto give away information aboutâ those goods, property, etc.
Anyone who makes trade justice activism, and anyone who visits this site, is a âshopperâ.
"Whoever said money can't buy happiness, simply didn't know where to go shopping" - Bo Derek.
Change government behaviour Change corporate behaviour Change citizen behaviour Change consumer behaviour Change the system Show what’s possible
TACTICS
Have a theory of change Join with others Find the unions Bring managers into view Bring politicians into view Bring regulators into view Hold ’em accountable
RESPONSES
Capitalism is sh*t This is disgusting I’m so angry I gotta do something These people are inspiring
IMPACTS
Governments intervene Corporations are punished Corporations change
EXAMPLES
HANDBOOK PAGES
Mangetout UDITA <more to be added>
Workers’ pay & conditions improve
IN BRIEF
Although itâs not always easy to trace a line between individual examples of trade justice activism and improvements in supply chain workersâ pay and conditions, this work does make a positive difference when looked at more broadly.
What’s this page?
This is a placeholder impact page that, once finished, will explain this impact, illustrate it with reference to comments taken from relevant followthethings.com example pages, and will give a clickable sense of the intentions, tactics and responses that go with it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Pop the bubble Tell the truth Show capitalist evils Change consumer behaviour Change citizen behaviour
TACTICS
Include emotion Show the violence Embody exploitation Include suffering kids Let the tears flow Bring managers into view Juxtapose extremes Blame, shame & guilt
RESPONSES
Capitalism is sh*t I’m so angry Creeperific I won’t buy it! Who’s responsible? I gotta do something LOL capitalism Nobody cares
IMPACTS
Now we’re talking Activism is inspired Activists are recruited Say no to enquiries
Sometimes showing how & where commodities are made physically disgusts audience members. They feel it in their bodies, it makes them flinch, retch, squirm. Itâs âickyâ & that ick can feed into (in)action.
What’s this page?
This is a placeholder response page that, once finished, will explain this response, illustrate it with reference to comments taken from relevant followthethings.com example pages, and will give a clickable sense of the intentions, tactics and impacts that go with it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Show capitalist evils Change industry minds Change corporate behaviour Show what’s possible
TACTICS
Target the right brand Hold ’em accountable Include emotion Show both sides Find a character Overlap scenes Juxtapose extremes Use myths & legends Go to court! Show social justice Show how to win Create a character Make the hidden visible Lie to tell the truth Bring politicians into view Bring regulators into view
RESPONSES
Capitalism is sh*t I’m so angry This is disgusting Creeperific Silence your critics Who’s responsible? Guilty as charged That brand deserves credit
So much trade justice activism puts exploited workers centre stage, often as victims or Davids vs. unseen Goliaths. So include / focus on Goliaths, their responsibilities & power to change things.
What’s this page?
This is a placeholder tactic page that, once finished, will explain this tactic, illustrate it with reference to comments taken from relevant followthethings.com example pages, and will give a clickable sense of the intentions, responses and impacts that go with it.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Reach new audiences Cross cultures Teach economic geography Show capitalist evils Show what’s possible
TACTICS
Choose the right thing Target the right brand Follow the thing Join the dots Find lost relations Humanise things Include emotion Encourage empathy Show the violence Tell a story
RESPONSES
I know how they feel This is so sad I feel sorry for them Wow đĽ WTF? Capitalism is sh*t Who’s responsible? Oh, I get it now Thank you What’s the point? It could be worse I won’t buy it
IMPACTS
Now I know Now we’re talking I get what it’s like It made me want to shop
EXAMPLES
HANDBOOK PAGES
Handprint Ilha das Flores Jamelia – whose hair is it anyway? Mangetout Primark – on the rack <more to be added>
Consumers’ experience of commodities can be personal. Providing comfort, escape, togetherness. This is the bubble of ‘commodity fetishism’ that trade justice activists like to pop. Workers of the world helped to create these experiences. Let’s, at least, acknowledge that!
What’s this page?
This is a placeholder intention page that, once finished, will explain this intention, illustrate it with reference to comments taken from relevant followthethings.com example pages, and will give a clickable sense of the tactics, responses and impacts that go with this intention.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque faucibus ex sapien vitae pellentesque sem placerat. In id cursus mi pretium tellus duis convallis. Tempus leo eu aenean sed diam urna tempor. Pulvinar vivamus fringilla lacus nec metus bibendum egestas. Iaculis massa nisl malesuada lacinia integer nunc posuere. Ut hendrerit semper vel class aptent taciti sociosqu. Ad litora torquent per conubia nostra inceptos himenaeos.
RECOMMENDED READINGS
Ian Cook et al (2002) Commodities: the DNA of capitalism. https://followtheblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/commodities_dna.pdf (last accessed 3 June 2024)
Ian Cook & Tara Woodyer (2012) Lives of things. in Eric Sheppard, Trevor Barnes & Jamie Peck (eds) The Wiley Blackwell companion to economic geography. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 226-241
This is the beginning of the next phase of the followthethings.com project. In 2020, we started to analyse the data we’ve compiled on over 100 examples of trade justice activism on followthethings.com. We’ve been trying to better understand the relationships between its intentions, tactics, responses and impacts. It design has been inspired by the short connected ‘pattern language’ approach taken in the Beautiful… activism books (Boyd 2012, Mitchell et al 2017, Williams et al 2025). While these books set out examples of activism, activists’ intentions, and the tactics and theories they can use, they don’t talk about audiences’ responses to, and the impacts of, this work. We’re trying to work out how trade justice activism works, and what it can do. We want to pass on what we have learned to those who are studying and making new trade justice activism. We have concentrated on films and videos to beging with and can only provide a taste of teh Handbook at the moment. But we’d love to hear your thoughts. See our contact page. Please check back.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
EXAMPLES
Bananas!* Beautiful clothes, ugly reality Big boys gone bananas!* Blood, sweat & takeaways Dream crazy Employee visualisation appendage Ghosts Girl model Handprint Ilha das Flores Jamelia – whose hair is it anyway? Life of a bullet Maquilapolis Mangetout Primark â on the rack Tackle the shackles The ginger trail The messenger band The true cost UDITA
INTENTIONS
What do trade justice activists want their work to do?
Change consumer behaviour Change corporate behaviour Change government behaviour Cross cultures Educate workers End violence & exploitation Improve pay & conditions Pop the bubble Reach new audiences Show capitalist evils Show whatâs possible Teach economic geography Tell the truth
TACTICS
What actions and strategies do they use to bring their intentions to life?
Add mood music Blame, shame & guilt Bring managers into view Choose an audience Create a character Embody exploitation Encourage a boycott Encourage curiosity Encourage detective work Encourage empathy Encourage feminist solidarities Find & give inspiration Find a character Find the unions Flip the script Follow the people Follow the thing Give workers the mic! Have a theory of change Hold âem accountable Humanise workers Include emotion Include suffering kids Include the digital Involve consumers Join with others Join the dots Juxtapose extremes Lie to tell the truth Make a website Make it familiar Make it funny Make it incomplete Make Music Make the familiar strange Place things carefully Put your bodies in the way Show both sides Show the violence Silence your critics Spend some time Stage a Q&A Start somewhere different Suggest concrete action Target the right brand Tell a story Workers take the mic
RESPONSES
How do audiences respond to this work, the stories it tells, the suggestions it makes?
Attack your critics Capitalism is sh*t Creeperific Guilty as charged I get what itâs like I gotta do something I just cried I know how they feel I laughed my ass off I want to find out more I wonât buy it Iâm humming that music Iâm so angry Itâs so badly made Liar! Fraud! LOL capitalism My hero! Oh shut up Silence your critics That’s racist There is no alternative These consumers are insane These people are inspiring They aren’t experts! This gives me hope This is disgusting This is so sad Who to believe? Whoâs responsible? Wow đĽ WTF?
IMPACTS
What changes does trade justice activism encourage in the world?
Activism is inspired Activism is publicised Activists are recruited Audiences are empowered Canât tell Corporations are punished Corporations change Debts are paid off Governments intervene I shop differently now Now I know Now we’re talking Workers suffer Workersâ pay & conditions improve
ADVICE TO FILMMAKERS
How students have used this handbook to criticaly anaylse trade justice activism
Primark – on the rack Mangetout Ilha das Flores Blood, sweat & takeaways Girl model Ghosts UDITA
INGREDIENTS
INTENTIONS
Reach new audiences Pop the bubble Change consumer behaviour Change corporate behaviour Improve pay and conditions Show what’s possible
TACTICS
Hold ’em accountable Blame, shame & guilt Lie to tell the truth Start somewhere different Involve consumers Humanise workers Find the unions Find a character Give workers the mic! Encourage empathy Juxtapose extremes Suggest concrete action Encourage feminist solidarities
RESPONSES
Attack your critics Liar! Fraud! Wow đĽ WTF? I’m so angry This is disgusting Guilty as charged I just cried I gotta do something Who’s responsible? These people are inspiring
IMPACTS
Now we’re talking Corporations change I shop differently now Workers suffer Activism is inspired Debts are paid off Workers’ pay & conditions improve
“Get people to reflect, not recoil“
By Abbie Gollings
IN BRIEF
Student Abbie Gollings has taken the ‘Geographies of material culture’ module at the University of Exeter. She’s been watching trade justice documentaries, analysing the comments on their followthethings.com pages, and making sense of them using a draft copy of ‘The followthethings.com handbook for trade justice activism’. She knows a thing or two about how trade justice documentaries work and what they can do. She’s been asked to imagine meeting a filmmaker who’s planning a new trade justice documentary. What advice could she give? Consider the emotions your work could evoke in its audiences. Which ones will encourage them to act in ways that could improve workers’ pay and conditions? And maybe start with the workers first? What’s her theory of change? What activism are they involved in. How could a filmmaker help?
More about this page.
We are slowly piecing together a followthethings.com handbook for trade justice activism and are publishing draft pages here as we write them. This is an ‘advice’ page. The main text is an example of student work from the ‘Geographies of material culture’ module which followthethings.com CEO Ian ran at the University of Exeter in the 2024-25 academic year. Students watched 8 films, and read their pages on followthethings.com (with the expeption of an unfinished film called The ginger trail). They were asked to pair the comments brought together on each of the films’ followthethings.com pages with the appropriate ingredients phrases (naming their intentions, tactics, responses and impacts – show in bold below) being drafted for the Handbook. Using these phrases as a pattern language (see FAQs), students were tasked to work out how specific intentions (e.g. improve workers’ pay & conditions) needed specific tactics (e.g. flip the script) to generate different kinds of responses (e.g. this is disgusting), which could generate different kinds of impacts (e.g. audiences are empowered). [NB pages about each of these ingredients are coming soon] At the end of the module, students were asked to imagine that they had met someone who was about to make their first trade justice documentary. Drawing on what they had learned in the module, what advice could they give them on how to make it effective?
Question
How can I make an effective trade justice documentary?
Answer
Screenshots from the Handbook.
‘Effectiveâ means many things: matching impacts to intentions, getting people talking. But you can do more. Effective documentaries can lead to action; the ultimate goal: improve workersâ pay and conditions. I assume this is your aim. But not just as a temporary âlifeboatâ (Kister and Wenner, 2024) – you want long-lasting change. Iâve watched some trade justice films. Some missed this mark. But they all point towards it. You can learn from them.
Start ambitious. Change corporate behaviour. Expose how they exploit workers, shame them into action. Corporations can change structurally – improve pay and conditions! This is what Primark on the Rack attempted. Posing as buyers, narrator McDougallâs team went to hold Primark accountable for âits illegal labour activitiesâ (Maroney; 190-1; in Adley et al., 2025), capturing footage of young boy Mantheesh working illegally on Primark garments in India. This scene caused outrage. Primark became the âposter boyâ for child labour (Cook et al., 2018; 483, in Adley et al., 2025) đŹ
Screenshots of Mantheesh testing sequins in Primark – on the rack.
Primark caught? Nope! They fired back. Attacked their critics. âLiar! Fraud! The footage is fake!â I didnât know who to believe. Commenters argued over whoâs right. This pivotal scene of Mantheesh became about everything but his struggles. Backfire! Panicking, Primark abruptly closed the three factories blamed of outsourcing and child labour. Rid themselves of the problem, leaving âhundreds of garment workers in an even worse position than beforeâ (Arnott; 36; in Adley et al., 2025). Workers suffer.
Thanks to the film, ”good daysâ for Mantheesh have come to an abrupt endâ (Hunt; 22, in Adley et al., 2025). đł . This is the opposite of its intention. Iâve used this example to show you how impactful film can be – and how risky. DONâT lie to tell the truth. Workers mightsuffer.
Screenshots from the Handbook.
SO.. letâs start smaller – a different angle. Target consumers. Try to change consumer behaviour. If you want people to rethink where their stuff comes from, pop the bubble. All activists need to shine light on the hidden realities (Duncombe, 2012). Cook and Woodyer (2012) explain how the âfetishâ of commodities hides the hands making them. So, as Boyd says (2012; in Duncombe, 2016, 122), you must make âthe invisible visible.â Showing the workers juxtaposing extremes can do this – it gets people questioning without blame, shame or guilt – which clearly didnât work for Primark on theRack.
Screenshots from the Handbook.
Mangetout and Ilha das Flores did this. But you canât just throw any scenes together.Bloomfield and Sangalang (2014) helped me get this – youâve gotta show the relationship between the scenes, like cause and effect, or moral contrast – so people connect the dots themselves. Leave space for imagination (Cook et al., 2007; 118). Like how Mangetout juxtaposes middle class diners who ate mangetout âbetween outbursts of smug crassness, [as] the African pickers were being treated as slavesâ (Holt, p.5; in Cook et al., 2025). Meanwhile Mark Dady, Tesco manager, smiles over his workers. It showed how Tesco policy exploits workers who completely rely on them, ignorant of their struggles, giving more attention to the vegetable than those producing it. Tesco werenât explicitly blamed – viewers drew âtheir own depressing conclusionsâ (Truss, np, in Cook et al., 2025) about how the workers were treated. I was so angry!
Screenshots of Mark Dady, Tesco buyer, visiting the farm (top left), Blessing Blessing Chingwaru, the farm’s chief mange-tout picker (bottom left) and the UK home counties dinner party guests eatinjg and discussing mage-tout farming in Zimbabwe: all from Mangetout.
Ilha das Flores also juxtaposed extremes showing the tomato-connected lives of workers, animals, and consumers. For some, it hit hard – âimpossible not to shed tears while watchingâ (Anon; 17; in Pavalow, 2025). Wow đĽ WTF? I was shocked seeing dead bodies, children eating scraps a family had previously deemed inedible. But the shock didnât lead me anywhere. If you look at Chouliaraki (2010), she explains this problem. She says when films show suffering too graphically or abstractly, they risk fetishising all over again. It becomes a spectacle of disgust (Lissner, 1981; 32, in Chouliaraki, 2010). I felt bombarded.
Screenshots from Ilha das Flores.
So, same technique, totally different outcomes. Emotions can work against you â ď¸ . Ilhadas Flores left people feeling disgusted – by the end âI just felt like being sickâ (Redroom Studios, np; cited in Pavalow, 2025). Disgust can make your audience recoil (Ryynänen, Kosonen, and YlĂśnen, 2023). Someone said âthe holocaust images made me stop watchingâ (@andrewsharpe2587, np, in Pavalow, 2025). Not exactly the spark you need to fuel activism.
Screenshots from the Handbook.
But anger you can work with! Anger at Mangetoutâs revelations inspired activism. Read Micheletti and Stolle (2008, p.749) to understand this emotional mobilisation. They explain how strong emotions like anger can drive change consumer behaviour and change corporate behaviour. Thatâs an effective outcome! Unlike disgust, anger is intentional (Ryynänen, Kosonen, and YlĂśnen, 2023). Mangetout was effective because, as Brown and Pickerill (2009) explain, there was somewhere to aim it: Tesco. Tesco felt pressured to join the Ethical Trading Initiative. Corporations have changed! SUCCESS!! đŻ You see there are different ways to apply pressure. Different emotions get different responses. Get people to reflect, not recoil.
Targeting consumer audiences seems to be effective – you can target them other ways! Try to change consumer behaviour. Kahn (2016) explains that consumers are more responsible than ever – the solution to fast fashion problems! Make them feel they gottado something.
Screenshots from the Handbook.
Involving consumers can be a powerful way to show them how to change. Blood Sweat andTakeaways tried this by taking 6 British food lovers to âwalk-a-mileâ in workersâ shoes in Thailand and Indonesia (Cuthbertson; 46; in Clarke et al., 2025). Millions watched – it reached new audiences and opened viewersâ eyes: âI never gave much thought to where my food comes fromâ (Lynn, np, in Clarke et al, 2025). But the show failed to tell viewers how to help – âboycott tuna or buy more of it?â (Sutcliffe 2009 np, in Clarke et al., 2025).
đ¤ What was the point? Instead, it focused on participantsâ personal journeys, like Manosâ emotional revelation and apology to the workers shown below. It didnât push for social change (Gupta and Fawcett, np, in Clarke et al., 2025), and letting consumers ‘play at’ being workers only extended the gap between âus’ and âthemâ (Yang, 2017; 61).
‘I have to apologize … I need to change.â British food lover Manos apologies to Indonesia fishermen in Blood, sweat and takeaways.Screenshot from the Handbook.
You must TELL consumers what to do (Haug and Busch, 2016). Explicitly link consumer habits with workersâ lives. In Primark on the Rack, a young woman is shown video evidence of children working on a top from Primark that she owned. She was shocked! Guilty as charged! Trust in Primark – gone. âItâs the end of the affairâ says McDougall (Panorama, 2008; 48:43). Consumer behaviour changed đ . people said they’d shop differently now đ . Did they?
Screenshots of journalist Mark Heap shows a British consumer some foilm footage of the children who made her top, in Primark – on the rack.
I felt guilty too. All those times Iâve ventured to Primark for another cheap top. But what about the factory owners Iâd seen? The childrenâs parents? Whoâs responsible? I started justifying my actions, Iâm a student. I canât afford to shop elsewhere. âHow dare that reporter incline towards that woman [shopping] in anyway that itâs her fault for buying clothes from Primarkâ (Maddox 2008 np; in Adley, 2025). Young (2003) explains this response. Guilt is backwards-looking, people get defensive (Bartky 2002; in Yang 2017) and angry. Instead of collective action, blaming a consumer caused resentment and refusal to take responsibility (Young, 2003). I came to a dead end. But then I returned to Young (2003). She says you want to show people that itâs everyoneâs responsibility.Y ou need to show them how to make a difference, but donât blame. Guilt isnât always effective.
Screenshots from the Handbook.
So avoid responses that will backfire. Your doc could be more effective by humanising workers. Get people talking about them. Youâve learnt about emotional responses – which ones should you evoke? Here you could turn to Kemp (2025) who explains that empathy can motivate helping behaviour and catalyse action (Nash and Corner, 2016). You want action! So encourage empathy.
Screenshots from the Handbook.
The unintentional popularity of Girl Model shows that finding a character can really effectively connect an audience to workers struggles through empathy. âIt became âessential viewing for adolescent girlsâ (Burr, 2012, np; in Hambly et al., 2025) because people had been emotionally impacted. Aspiring model Nadya (13) is carted off to Tokyo with hope for a better life, and money for her family. But these promises dissolve and the glamour and gloss of the industry was stripped away (Kermode, 2012, np, in Hambly et al., 2025). The images show her real emotions under the fake glamour. Ijustcried âI wanted to give Nadya a hug, because I felt her painâ (DisturbedPixie, np; in Hambly et al, 2025).
Screenshots of Nadya Vall modelling and crying IRL, in Girl Model.
The rawness of disappointment touched a nerve. Canning and Reinsborough (2012) explain that your audience cares more when they relate. So you could include relatable characters to engage your audience. Point your camera towards the workers and it becomes an âempathy machineâ (Jackson in Nals, 2018; 135). But there was nothing I could for Nadya. I was invested but at a dead end. But Ghosts shows how empathy CAN effectively inspire action.
Ghostsfinds a character: Ai Qin. We follow her closely as she migrates to the UK for better wages and work. But she becomes trapped in a modern slave system. She repeatedly suffers. She cries and then⌠I cried.
Screenshots of modern slave Ai Qin in Ghosts.Screenshot from the Handbook.
My emotions mirrored hers (Nals, 2018). Her plight comes up to you like an unforgiving tide (Keak np; in Allen et al., 2025). You want to help her. Some viewers said that showing her ordinary emotions brought her closer to ‘us’ bridging a ‘gulf’ between viewer and subject (Brass; 346; in Allen et al., 2025), but I felt like I was framed in an oppressor vs oppressed dynamic (Bardan, date; in Pereen, 2014; 44). She was a victim, the audience are saviours (Pereen, 2014; 44). Ghosts ends with the Morecambe Bay tragedy: Ai Qin survives, but viewers learn the victims’ families struggle with debt. Broomfield established the Morecombe Bay Victimâs fund (OâKeeffe 2006; in Allen et al., 2025) and emotionally-connected viewers, now cast as saviours, donate to clear these debts. Debts are paid off.
So if you encourage empathy and suggest concrete action you can drive effective change. But this help was temporary. And empathy donation relationships rely on the colonial gaze being maintained (Hall, 1992; in Chouliaraki, 2010) which is part of the problem. Your film can use empathy to get immediate change, but you need to switch it up to improve workers pay and conditions long-term.
Screenshots from the Handbook.
Individualising and blaming consumers and corporations can undermine your goal. An effective doc must promote trade justice without endangering workers. So start somewhere different. Let workerstakethe mic. Like UDITA (Arise) did. Following 5 female union workers, it shows whatâspossible: powerful, collective action – âwomenâs hope and commitment to create better conditions for the next generationâ (Spooner; 32, in Barker et al, 2025). These people are inspiring. Empowered workers showed how resistance is already improvingpay and conditions (Siddiqi, 2019). They had a voice – and knowing best how the garment industry should change (Khan, 2016), they can tell us what they want – (OâNeill, np; in Barker et al, 2025).
Left: screenshot from UDITA. Right: screenshot from the Handbook.
I could no longer excuse ignoring how my t-shirts are made because â[T]he actual garment workers themselves are saying that they want us to shop consciously. WE CAN DO ITâ (Gregory, np, in Barker et al., 2025). It shows that the workers donât need âsavingâ – Primark – On the Rack showed how victimising workers can harm their interests (Siddiqi, 2019), moving beyond the âusâ and âthemâ divide. Before, I was encouraged to be a guilty consumer . Now I was encouraged to be a feminist insolidarity – an important move for audiences to make because it shows the collective responsibility we all have – that workers need to resist too (Young, 2003; 42).
Screenshot from the Handbook.
After so much despair, witnessing their resilience gave me hope. Your film can help apply pressure in the right places. Find the unions and help them to improve pay and conditions. Inspire viewers to work collectively. Make it forward-looking (Robin Zheng, 2019). Show there is an alternative, and you will make real change.
Left: screenshot from UDITA. Right: screenshot from the Handbook.
So to improve pay and conditions: target consumers and corporations, but be cautious â ď¸ . Get people talking about the workers, and mobilise emotions like empathy and anger into concrete action. Collate these ideas – have a theory of change and apply pressure from different angles. Like UDITA, give workers opportunity to show whatâs possible to give the audience hope, a sense of togetherness.
Screenshot from the Handbook.
SOURCES
Adley, K., Keeble, R., Russell, P. Stenholm, N, Strang, W, and Valo,. T (2025) Primark â on the rack. followthethings.com/primark-on-the-rack.shtml (last accessed: 28th April, 2025)
Allen, H, Heaume, E, Heeley, L. Hedger, R, Johnson, S, McGregor, O & Webber, L (2025) Ghosts. followthethings.com/ghosts.shtml (last accessed: 25th April 2025)
Barker, T, Collier, T, Baker, A, Coppen, L & Eve, H (2025) UDITA (ARISE). followthethings.com/udita.shtml (last accessed: 25th April, 2025)
Bloomfield, E.F. and Sangalang, A. (2014) Juxtaposition as Visual Argument: Health Rhetoric in Super Size Me and Fat Head. Argumentation and Advocacy, 50(3), pp. 141â 156
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Brown, G. and Pickerill, J. (2009) Space for Emotion in the Spaces Of Activism. Emotion, space and society, 2(1), pp. 24â35
Canning, D. and Reinsborough, P. (2012) Lead With Sympathetic Characters. in Beautiful Trouble. OR Books, p. 146
Chouliaraki, L. (2010) Post-humanitarianism: Humanitarian Communication Beyond a Politics of Pity. International journal of cultural studies, 13(2), p. 107â126.
Clarke, M Thomson, B. Bartley, V. Ibbetson-Price, K. Christie-Miller. E. & Schofield, H. (2025) Blood, Sweat & Takeaways. followthethings.com/blood-sweat-takeaways.shtml (last accessed: 28th April, 2025)
Cook, I. and Woodyer, T. (2012) Lives of Things. in The WileyâBlackwell Companion to Economic Geography. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, p. 226â241
Cook, I. et al. (2007) âItâs More Than Just What It Is’: Defetishising Commodities, Expanding Fields, Mobilising Change. Geoforum, 38(6), p. 1113â1126
Cook, I, et al., (2025) Mangetout. followthethings.com/mange-tout.shtml (last accessed: 28th April, 2025)
Duncombe, S. (2012) It Stands On Its Head: Commodity Fetishism, Consumer Activism, And The Strategic Use Of Fantasy. Culture and organization, 18(5), p.359â375.
Duncombe, S. (2016) ‘Does It Work? The Ăffect of Activist Art. Social research 83(1), p.115-134.
Duncombe, S. (2023) A Theory of Change for Artistic Activism. The Journal of aesthetics and art criticism, 81(2), pp. 260â268
Hambly, A, King, E, Keogh, A, Renny-Smith, C, Callow,E, Thorogood, J & Alloy, V (2025) Girl Model: The Truth Behind The Glamour. followthethings.com/girl-model.shtml (last accessed: 28th April, 2025)
Haug, A. and Busch, J. (2016) Towards an Ethical Fashion Framework. Fashion theory 20(3), p.317â339
Pavalow., M (2025) Ilha das Flores. followthethings.com/ilhadasflores.html (last accessed: 28th April, 2025)
Kemp, D. (2025) Comparing Disgust and Sadness: Examining the Interaction of Emotion and Information in Charity Appeals. Journal of social marketing, 15(1), p.42â58.
Khan, R. (2016) Doing Good and Looking good: Women in âFast Fashionâ Activism. Women & Environments International Magazine, 96/97, p.7-9
Kister, J. and Wenner, M. (2024) Living Wages as Life Boat to Rescue Fairtradeâs Values for Hired Labour? The Case of Indian Tea Plantations. Die Erde: journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin 154(3), p.80-94
Micheletti, M. and Stolle, D. (2008) Fashioning Social Justice Through Political Consumerism, Capitalism, And The Internet. Cultural studies 22(5), p.749â769
NĂĽls, J. (2018) The Difficulty of Eliciting Empathy in Documentary. in Brylla, C & Kramer, M. (eds) Cognitive Theory and Documentary. Oxford: Palgrave Macmillan, p.135-148
Nash, K. and Corner, J. (2016) Strategic Impact Documentary: Contexts Of Production And Social Intervention. European journal of communication 31(3), p.227â242
Peeren, E. (2014) The Spectral Metaphor: Living Ghosts and the Agency of Invisibility. London: Palgrave Macmillan
Ryynänen, M., Kosonen, H.S. and YlÜnen, S.C. (2023) From visceral to the aesthetic: tracing disgust in contemporary culture. in their (eds.) Cultural Approaches to Disgust and the Visceral. London: Routledge, p.3-16
Siddiqi, D.M. (2009) Do Bangladeshi Factory Workers Need Saving? Sisterhood In The Post-Sweatshop Era. Feminist review, 91(91), p.154â174
Yang, J. (2017) Screening privilege: global injustice & responsibility in 21st-Century Scandinavian film & media. PhD thesis: University of Oslo (https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/70905/Yang%2bPhD%2bScreening%2bPrivilege.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y last accessed 28th April 2025)
Young, I. (2003) From guilt to solidarity: sweatshops & political responsibility. Dissent 50(2), p.39-44
Zheng, R. (2019) What Kind of Responsibility Do We Have for Fighting Injustice? A Moral- Theoretic Perspective on the Social Connections Model. Critical horizons : journal of social & critical theory, 20(2), p.109â126
“Jaffa, The Orange’s Clockwork“ A documentary film dirercted by Eyal Sivan for Trabelsi Productions. Trailer embedded above, search online for streaming options here.
Imagine visiting your local supermarket and popping a bag of Jaffa branded oranges in your basket. Then imagine browsing your favourite news site on your phone in the checkout queue and reading the latest story about deaths in Gaza, war in the Middle East. Maybe youâve read a lot about this conflict, or have some first hand experience. But news stories donât tend to explain its background, how and why it began. That bag of oranges â and this documentary film â can help to do this. Jaffa is an ancient Palestinian city. Itâs also where Jaffa-branded oranges have been grown by Arab and Jewish people since the 1800s. Once picked, they would wrap each individual fruit in tissue paper, pack them into wooden boxes, load them onto boats and ship them wordwide. A year after the birth of âpractical photographyâ in 1839, Palestinian photographer Khalil Khaed visited Jaffa to document everyday life and work, including in its orange groves. Photographers, filmmakers, artists and advertisiers have documented the connection between Jaffa and oranges ever since. But, as the Israeli state began to take shape in the 20th Century, this film argues that there was a concerted attempt to remove Palestine from Jaffa oranges and to rebrand them as emblems of Israeli civilisation. It’s settler Colonialism 101. To piece this history together, Israeli filmmaker Eyal Sivan spent five years sifting through numerous archives for Jaffa-orange photos, films, advertising and resistance. He showed what he found to Israeli and Palestinian people- academics, poets, retired orange workers, advertising executives, others â and filmed their reactions. What he created from this footage is â many have said â a profoundly insightful and moving documentary. It has generated considerable critical and public acclaim from audiences around the world. First screened in 2009, it is still a go-to documentary to spark debate about the Palestine-Israel conflict today. And Sivan continues to attend screenings to answer questions about the film and the futures that might be possible in the region. Sivanâs politics, and films, are anti-Zionist. He has struggled to raise funding and to gain screening opportunities in Israel. He and his films have generated criticisms of anti-semitism. But the main argument in ‘Jaffa, The Orangeâs Clockwork’ is that, if Arab and Jewish people were able to work together harmoniously in the past â like they did in Jaffaâs orange groves â they can do so in the future. You have to see this to believe this. Why not watch the film? Read the comments below. See what you think. We’ve tried to captire all of the discusion we’ve found online.
Page reference: Lucian Harford (2025) Jaffa, The Orange’s Clockwork. followthethings.com/jaffa-the-oranges-clockwork.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)
Girl model Mangetout The ginger trail Ghosts Primark – on the rack
INGREDIENTS
INTENTIONS
Pop the bubble Cross cultures Tell the truth Show capitalist evils End violence & exploitation Change corporate behaviour Teach economic geography
TACTICS
Have a theory of change Target the right brand Follow the thing Tell the truth Tell a story Include emotion Encourage empathy Find & give inspiration Workers take the mic! Find a character Create a character Bring managers into view Show the violence Include suffering kids Juxtapose extremes Blame, shame & guilt Encourage feminist solidarities Add mood music Silence your critics
RESPONSES
This is so sad This is disgusting I’m so angry I just cried These consumers are insane Capitalism is sh*t These people are inspiring This gives me hope I want to find out more
IMPACTS
Now I know! Now we’re talking Activism is publicised Activism is inspired Debts are paid off Governments intervene Corporations change
“Choose the emotion that wonât let go – then hit ‘record’“
By Luke Elkington
IN BRIEF
Student Luke Elkington has taken the ‘Geographies of material culture’ module at the University of Exeter. He’s been watching trade justice documentaries, analysing the comments on their followthethings.com pages, and making sense of them using a draft copy of ‘The followthethings.com handbook for trade justice activism’. He knows a thing or two about how trade justice documentaries work and what they can do. He’s been asked to imagine meeting a filmmaker who’s planning a new trade justice documentary. What advice could he give? Get inspired by the films he’s watched, and get the emotions right. Then record.
More about this page.
We are slowly piecing together a followthethings.com handbook for trade justice activism and are publishing draft pages here as we write them. This is an ‘advice’ page. The main text is an example of student work from the ‘Geographies of material culture’ module which followthethings.com CEO Ian ran at the University of Exeter in the 2024-25 academic year. Students watched 8 films, and read their pages on followthethings.com (with the expeption of an unfinished film called The ginger trail). They were asked to pair the comments brought together on each of the films’ followthethings.com pages with the appropriate ingredients phrases (naming their intentions, tactics, responses and impacts – show in bold below) being drafted for the Handbook. Using these phrases as a pattern language (see FAQs), students were tasked to work out how specific intentions (e.g. improve workers’ pay & conditions) needed specific tactics (e.g. flip the script) to generate different kinds of responses (e.g. this is disgusting), which could generate different kinds of impacts (e.g. audiences are empowered). [NB pages about each of these ingredients are coming soon] At the end of the module, students were asked to imagine that they had met someone who was about to make their first trade justice documentary. Drawing on what they had learned in the module, what advice could they give them on how to make it effective?
Question
How can I make an effective trade justice documentary?
Answer
First things first, cos youâre making a trade justice documentary, your film must contribute to the Trade Justice Movement â or TJM. But what does that even mean?!?!? The TJM challenges unfair imbalances in power between trading nations by tearing up the rule book âđ˝ and the goal is to create a global system which prioritizes the people đŠđťâđ¤âđŠđž and the planet đ (Bannister & Bergan, 2023). So, to be a trade justice documentary, your activism must try to shift power away from the capitalist class đż and toward supply chain workers đ¤ (Wright, 2015). Easy right ?
Screenshot fromthe Handbook.
Now, for your film to be effective, its intentions must lead to real-world impact. To generate the greatest impact, I suggest having a theory of change đ¤ AKA a strategy to maximize your filmâs effectiveness. This will help you focus on a specific TJM issue to create meaningful and targeted đŻ change (Duncombe, 2023)!!!
OK … let me tell you a story. Itâs 2008. Iâm watching â˝ď¸ football. Age 6. Suddenly, itâs half-time. A charityâs plea for donations appears on the TV. Starving Sudanese children đśđż scatter the screen. Their exposed black ribs protrude from the telly stabbing đĄ into my young eyes – bringing them to tears đ˘. WHY do I still remember? Emotions imprint far deeper than facts ever can – so your film must aim not just to inform, but to includeemotion that will shakeyour viewer.
In April, I walked past Primark. My attention focused on glossy posters of young girls đ§ posing. Slowly, their faces distorted into Nadya Vall from Girl Model. Filmmakers follow this 13 year old girl from Siberia to Tokyo, chasing her dream to become a model. But it falls apart and she cries for help. The image burnt đĽ into my brain đ§ . I couldnât stop thinking about Nadya.
Screenshots of girl model Nadya Vall in Girl Model.
Filmmakers use tactics to trigger 𤎠đ đ˘ đŤ đĄ đł đ. Girl Model finds a character in Nadya who ‘gives the film a clear protagonist'(Saito in Hambly et al., 2025, np) creating a bond between the viewer and Nadya (Nash & Corner, 2016). The film includes suffering kids đ§ as Nadya cries to return to her impoverished home which is contrasted with Ashley, Nadyaâs manager, who is free to wander her ‘cavernous Connecticut mansion’ đĄ (Lucca in Hambly et al., 2025, np).
Screenshots of model scout Ashley Arbaugh in Girl Model.
By bringing a manager into view, filmmakers reveal Ashleyâs apathy through unsettling imagery – strange dolls đŞand eerie photo cut-outs of models – which underscore her ‘disconnection from the modelling world’ (Redmon in ibid) and Nadya (Natter & Jones III, 1993). These tactics together encourage empathy đĽšby helping viewers really understand Nadyaâs suffering â which often makes viewers sad (Redmon in Hambly et al., 2025; Dant, 2012).
Screenshots of Ashley’s baby doll collection and covert snapshots in Girl Model.
It worked! Itâs ‘saddening’ âšď¸ (Almachar in Hambly et al., 2025, np). Iâm so sad. Sadness is ‘a response to and feeling of loss’ (Kemp, 2025, p.44). Myself and others found Girl Model pretty ‘disturbing’ (Cli in Hambly et al., 2025, np)âŚ.itâs disgusting 𤎠. These feelings are brought on by violations of morality and with these physical feelings of revulsion đ¤˘, the filmâs message hits deeper into the viewerâs heart â¤ď¸ (Ryynänen et al., 2023).
By not ramming information down our throats, Girl Modeltold the truth â ‘a veritĂŠ narrative’ (Sabin & Redmond in Hambly et al., 2025, np) and this amplified đ the filmâs impacts âšď¸ 𤎠(Sabin & Redmond in Hambly et al., 2025).
Activism was inspired! Someone else made a film, people asked how they could create change, and conversations roared online â this engagement with the film is the first step toward real change ⌠now weâre talking đŹ (Sabin & Redmond and Bleasdale in Hambly et al, 2025).
So now we know about Nadyaâs exploitationâŚ. our knowledge is the starting point for action âđ˝.
Hold on âď¸. Wenzel (2011) warns that consumers often confuse gaining knowledge with meaningful action. As a result, films can end up re-fetishizing commodities, simply generating new demand: dammit đ¤ (ibid).
BUT WAIT! Nash and Corner (2016) explain how to overcome thisâŚ..emotions can be just as powerful, if not more so, than knowledge. By fostering emotional attachment to an issue, films have the potential to stimulate genuine action, not just passive awareness (ibid)!!!!
OK, now I know emotions are important. Girl Model got people âšď¸ and đ¤Ž. Mangetout got people đĄ.
Mangetoutpopped the bubble by confronting Brits ‘with their most popular supermarket Tesco actually running a farm in Zimbabwe’ (Miller in Cook et al., 2025, np). Crossing cultures and following the thing traces the journey of mangetout peas đŤ ‘from African soil to English dinner plate’ (Phillips in ibid) exposing the interconnected web of commodities and their externalities along the way (Callon, 1998). BAM đĽ my commodity fetishism 𫧠was popped â Marx can #RIP 𪌠(Cook et al., 2002).
Screenshots of the farm, the TESCO HQ & the dinner table in Mangetout.
Tesco veg buyer Mark Dady travels to Zimbabwe bringing managers into view. He inspects Chiparawe farm [code đ§âđť for] he bullies farmers to grow the perfect đŤ for minimal Ps đˇ (Aaronovitch in Cook et al., 2025). Markâs arrival đŹ is accompanied by imperial music to add mood music đľ which juxtaposes extremes with Zimbabweans singing ‘Tescoâs our dear friend’ đ¤(Holt in Cook et al., np; Friedberg, 2004). Juxtaposition is useful to filmmakers cos it helps highlight stark inequalities (Wenzel, 2011)!
A juxtaposition đ¨âđŤ masterclassâŚâŚâŚ
Screenshots from Mangetout.
Mark âŹď¸ demands farmworkers trim the đŤ leaves for the consumerâs benefit …! Grannie âŹď¸ explains her past traumas while a British consumer at a dinner party âŹď¸ says workers – like Grannie – ‘are probably happy in their mud hut’ (OâMalley in Cook et al., 2025, np).
Screenshots of the dinner party guest and farm worker Grannie from Mangetout
These tactics juxtaposes British consumers đ¤ľââď¸ with Zimbabwean farmworkers đŠđžâđž leading to a response of these consumers are insane â theyâre called arrogant, bstards, and c&*ts (in Cook et al., 2025). Contrasting consumers with producers provokes viewers to rally 𪧠against the dinner party guests (Wenzel, 2011). Viewers were so angry đĄ at Tesco đż that they wanted to ‘kick in the TV’ đş (Jema in Cook et al., 2025, np). Anger helps prompt action by breaking viewer passivity (Chouliaraki, 2010). In response to Mangetout, Tesco joined the Ethical Trade Initiative showing ‘the ability of film to intervene in the foodscape’ (Richardson-Ngwenya & Richardson in Cook et al., 2025, np). Corporations changed đĽđĽđĽ because of political consumerism (Stolle & Micheletti 2013).
Effective. Intentions â Impacts. But just a word of warning, triggering tooooo strong emotions can backfire. Chouliaraki (2010) â worth a read đ btw warns of the boomerang (viewers resent blame, shame & guilt tactics ) and bystander effects (viewers feels powerless đŹ). The trick is to deliver enough emotion to spark action 𧨠without triggering paralysis or resentment đŤŠ.
But The ginger đŤ trail doesnât trigger strong emotions at all. đ A major flaw?
Screenshots from The ginger trail.
Itâs an I-Doc đŚ. Viewers choose clips đ˝ and in what order theyâre watched. Interactivity facilitates participation in making a film rather than simply consuming it â this immerses viewers (Aston, 2022). This film teaches economic geographies (Ananthanarayana, 2025). It shows slow violence caused by ginger cultivation but itâs hard to show violence that takes place over many years âł (ibid; Davies, 2022). It overcomes this by showing communities suffering consequences of slow violence which impacts viewers emotionally đ which is what Davies (2022) recommends!
Screenshots from The ginger trail.
Viewers wanted to find out more. To ‘work out the puzzle đ§Š of seemingly disconnected clips’ (Anon in Ananthanarayana, 2025, np). But responses were ‘not emotionally charged’ đ¤Śââď¸ (ibid). Still, now weâre talking; viewers ‘told their house about the film’ (ibid). đ Knowledge is dispersed. But was this an effective film?
IMOâŚNo. It nailed interactivity. But the lack of emotional response means the film risks creating passive awareness đ¤ˇââď¸ rather than action (Nash and Corner, 2016). Films have to get the viewer emotionally.
Thatâs where Ghosts đť comes in. A fictional film. Based on the ‘true story’ (Broomfield in Allen et al., 2025, np) of 23 Chinese migrant workers who died đ at Morecambe Bay in 2004. It tells the truth đŻ and shows capitalist evils by telling the story of Ai Qin and ‘the chain of labour that exploits illegal immigrants’ (Romney in ibid). Telling stories are effective as they help viewers connect to characters which moves them emotionally đ (Nash and Corner, 2016). The film created characters AND found characters! Lead actors were Chinese migrants â ‘neither actors nor themselves’ (Martin in Allen et al., 2025, np).
Screenshots from Ghosts (bottom right: Ai Qin goes food shopping).
Oh and also, Ghosts showed the violence đĄâđ¤ workers endured in Morecambe bay forcing the viewer to imagine themselves there (Wenzel, 2011). These tactics combine to include (so much raw) emotion in Ghosts meaning viewers know ‘this is the real thing’ (Anon in Allen et al., 2025, np).
Screenshot from Ghosts of ‘the fight between indigenous and migrant workers’ (Martin in ibid).
Then I cried đ. Having built an attachment to the workers, having seen the violence they were victims of, the scene where they drown đââď¸ was TOO MUCH! Itâs difficult ‘ NOT to cry’ (Johnjoe66 in ibid). Viewers feel helpless which combined with feeling so sad đ they just cry đ (Frome, 2014). Ghosts shows how ‘unchecked capitalism haunt[s] this deeply felt film’ (Geall in Allen et al. 2025, np). Ugggh, capitalism is sh*t! â đ˘ đĄ đŠ đ¤Ž.
Screenshot from Ghosts.
But … something positive … debts were paid off â ‘the crippling debts inherited by the families of the victims of the Morecambe Bay Tragedy have been paid off’ (Anon in ibid).
Screenshot from the Ghosts website.
Emotion + Knowledge = Actionâď¸2008 â 2025 and a film still makes me đ. Ghosts đť worked.
Now, Primark on the rack đđ worked but wait for the đ twist. It showed capitalist evils by exposing Primarkâs suppliers using child refugees from Sri Lanka as wage labourers in India, earning just ’19p a day’ đ (Williams in Adley et al., 2025, np). Capitalism f*cking failed these people 𫩠(Chellan, 2023). By targeting the right brand – one with ‘170 stores nationwide’ (Williams in Adley et a., 2025, np), filmmakers tried to change corporate behaviour by ‘set[ting] up [their] target’ đŻ (Maroney in ibid). Exposing the discrepancies between Primarkâs brand image and reality hit đ them hard â exploiting their corporate vulnerabilities â ruining reputations, provoking them to change (Micheletti & Stolle, 2008; Cook et al., 2019).
Screenshots from Primark – on the rack.
Want a strong reaction? Like Girl Model, include suffering kids đ Capitalism is sh*t â ‘An inequality-enhancing machine’ đ (Wright, 2015, np).
BUT THEREâS A PROBLEM!!! The filmmakers [allegedly] â ď¸ fabricated â ď¸ a scene of children working in Bangalore â the ‘footage was not authentic’ (Greenslade in Adley et al., 2025, np). Child exploitation is socially unacceptable, and I think the filmmakers đĽ took advantage of this to incite đĄ đ˘ đŠ đ¤Ž (Aguigar et al., 2008). Primark tried to silence đ¤ their critics by challenging the filmmakers but this backfired because of the Streisand Effect â activism was publicised 𤯠(Cook et al., 2018). Prioritising PR đ§Żdrew more attention đ to their exploitation⌠‘what about the other children that featured in THE REST OF THE ONE HOUR FILM’ (emilynew in Adley et al, 2025, np).
With public outcry magnified đ, corporations changed. In 2013, the Rana Plaza clothes factory collapsed killing over 1,100 people in Dhaka, Bangladesh (Cook et al., 2018). Primarkâs response was to spend ÂŁ9 million đ°to support local communities â or to (try) cover their arses (ibid).
An EFFECTIVE film. But the filmmaker who exposed Primark also found out (ibid). The film would have triggered the desired anti-capitalist reaction without the fake footage â something to avoid đŤ when making your film!
Uh-oh, back to Rana Plaza. Iâm welling up. But Iâm crying đ because UDITA is inspiring.
Over 5 years, UDITA follows female garment factory workers in their mission for justice before and after Rana Plaza. Ending violence and exploitation was the goal – ‘Udita shows the agency of these women’ (Minney in Barker et al., 2025, np) to overcome injustice. It encourages feminist đ¤đťđ¤đ˝ solidarities giving women greater confidence and knowledge to DEMAND their rights (Hale & Willis, 2007). Its ‘just the workers voices’đŁ (Rainbow Collective in Barker et al., 2025, np).
Screenshots from Udita.
In UDITA – workers take the mic đ! Collective action is key to taking down capitalism (McLaren, 2019). By finding and giving đ inspiration – ‘like the inspirational Ratna Miah’ (Hoskins in Barker et al., 2025, np), there is one overriding response: these people are ‘inspiring on a global level’ (ibid) đ. Inspiration is powerful âđ˝ cos it encourages the viewer to emulate the inspiring women in UDITA (Thrash and Elliot, 2003). And the best bit? It worked alongside other emotions. This is so sad. I’m so angry. This gives me hope (Season Bangla Drama in Barker et al., 2025, np).
Screenshots from UDITA.
This hope encourages other people to continue with their own activism (Brown & Pickerell, 2009). UDITAinspired activism as people globally challenge injustice through their own community campaigns đ¤ -‘I am filming everything to collect evidence for our own community campaign’ (Salmon in Barker et al., 2025, np). And thereâs more! Governments intervened. In France, legislation changed because ‘Rana Plaza was covered by newspapers, petition of NGOs, film, documentary’ (Evans in ibid) like UDITA. 𤊠WHOA! Thatâs real change âđ˝.
RIGHT, so whatâs my answer???
Effective films use emotions đĄ đ˘ đ đŠ đ¤Ž đ¤ 𫩠𤯠𤩠to provoke responses that galvanise action. So think carefully before locking in your theory of change. Choose the emotion that wonât let go – then hit đ ‘record.’ By shaking viewers emotionally and making them feel injustice, youâre not just making a documentary – youâre starting a movement âđ˝.
Think of Nadya đ, Grannie đĄ, Ai Qin đââď¸, the children đ§ of Primark, and the women đ§đ˝đ§đ˝đ§đ˝ of Dhaka.
Effective films ignite emotion. Now you know. Get out there and inspire change! â¨
SOURCES
Adley, K., Keeble, R., Russell, P., Stenholm, N., Strang, W. and Valo, T. (2025) Primark â On The Rack. followthethings.com (https://followthethings.com/?p=2655 last accessed 27 April 2025)
Aguigar, P., Vala, J., Correia, I. & Pereira, C. (2008) Justice in Our World and in that of Others: Belief in a Just World and Reactions to Victims. Social Justice Research 21(1), p. 50-68.
Allen, H., Heaume, E., Heeley, L., Hedger, R., Johnson, S., McGregor, O. and Webber, L. (2025). Ghosts. followthethings.com (https://followthethings.com/?p=10357 last accessed 27 April 2025)
Ananthanarayana, B. (2025) Untitled [Q&A video & transcript], GEO3123: Geographies of material culture. University of Exeter.
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Aston, J. (2022) Interactive Documentary: Re-setting the Field. Interactive Film and Media Journal 2(4), p.7-18
Bannister, L. & Bergan, R. (2023) A timeline of UK trade and trade justice. London: Trade Justice Movement
Barker, T., Collier, J., Baker, A., Coppen, L. and Eve, H. (2025) UDITA (ARISE). followthethings.com (https://followthethings.com/?p=1593 last accessed 27 April 2025)
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Chellan, N. (2023) The life of capitalism. in his F/Ailing capitalism and the challenge of COVID-19. Leiden: Brill, p.180-216
Chouliaraki, L. (2010) Post-humanitarianism Huamitarian communication beyond a politics of pity. International journal of cultural studies 13(2), p.107-126
Cook et al, I. (2018) Inviting construction: Primark, Rana Plaza and Political LEGO. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 43(3), p.477-495
Cook et al, I. (2019) A new vocabulary for culturalâeconomic geography? Dialogues in Human Geography 9(1), p.83-87
Cook et al, I. (2025) Mangetout. followthethings.com (https://followthethings.com/mange-tout.shtml last accessed 27 April 2025)
Cook et al, I. (2002) Commodities: the DNA of capitalism. (https://followtheblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/commodities_dna.pdf last accessed 27 April 2025)
Dant, T. (2012) Mediating morality. in his Television and the moral imaginary. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 147-178
Davies, T.,(2022) Slow violence and toxic geographies: ‘Out of sight’ to whom? Politics and Space 40(2), p.409-427
Duncombe, S. (2023) A Theory of Change for Artistic Activism. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 81, p.260-268
Friedberg, S. (2004) The ethical complex of corporate food power. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 22, p.513-531
Frome, J. (2014) Melodrama and the psychology of tears. Projections 8(1), p.23â40
Hale, A. & Willis, J. (2007) Women Working Worldwide: transnational networks, corporate social responsibility and action research. Global Networks 7(4), p.453-476
Hambley, A., King, E., Keogh, A., Renny-Smith, C., Callow, E., Thorogood, J. & Alloy, V. (2025) Girl Model: The Truth Behind The Glamour. followthethings.com (https://followthethings.com/girl-model.shtml last accessed 27 April 2025)
Kemp, D. (2025) Comparing disgust and sadness: examining the interaction of emotion and information in charity appeals. Journal of Social Marketing [online early], pp. 42-58.
McLaren, M. (2019) Global Gender Justice: Human Rights and Political Responsibility. Critical Horizons 20(2), p.127-144.
Micheletti, M. & Stolle, D. (2008) Fashioning social justice through political consumerism, capitalism and the internet. Cultural Studies 22(5), p.749-769
Nash, K. & Corner, J. (2016) Strategic impact documentary: contexts of production & social intervention. European journal of communication 31(3), p.227â242
Natter, W. & Jones III. J.P. (1993) Pets or meat: class, ideology & space in Roger & Me. Antipode 25(2), p.140-158
Ryynänen, M., Kosonen, H. & YlÜnen, S. (2023) From visceral to the aesthetic: tracing disgust in contemporary culture. in their (eds.) Cultural Approaches to Disgust and the Visceral. London: Routledge, p.3-16
Stolle, D. & Micheletti, M. (2013) Does political consumerism matter? Effectiveness and limits of political consumer activism repertoires. in their Political consumerism: global responsibility in action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.204-243
Thrash, T. & Elliot, A. (2003) Inspiration as a Psychological Construct. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(4), p.871-889
Wenzel, J. (2011) Consumption for the common good? Commodity biography film in an age of postconsumerism. Public culture 23(3), p.573-602
“Barbie’s Dirty Secrets“ A documentary film presented by Isobel Yeung, and produced by Alasdair Glennie for Zandland, first broadcast on Channel 4, UK. Available on YouTube, embedded above.
Journalist Isobel Yeung latches onto worldwide success of the 2023 Barbie movie and its feminist critique of the toy industry to ask about the lives of the women who make these dolls in factories in China. She drives around Los Angeles in a Barbie pink Jeep, picking up expert passengers who know about Mattel – the LA-headquartered company that makes and markets this doll – and about the wealth enjoyed by its CEO Ynon Kreiz. These scenes are intercut with Yeung’s phone calls to a fixer in China who is tasked to get an undercover reporter into a Barbie factory wearing a hidden camera. This reporter lasts just one day handling scolding hot plastic Barbie limbs with her bare hands, and is withdrawn for her own health and wellbeing. A second undercover reporter then gets a job assembling plastic figures from a forthcoming Disney Moana movie. He seems to last a day or two, unable to meet rising quotas for new employees, but he captures conversations with his co-workers about life and work in the factory. This undercover footage is shown to a representative of a labour rights NGO who is horrified by the violations that she sees. The film then shifts its attention to another Mattel brand – Fisher Price – and a dangerous cot which has been linked to the deaths of babies, and legal cases against the company. [We don’t detail this below, because we are interested in the way that this film connect the labour, marketing and consumption of Barbie dolls]. Our website has documented many landmark examples of trade justice activism when it was new – from the late 1990s in particular – and when it could have shock value and noticeable impact. Audiences in the 2020s, however, seem no longer to be shocked to find labour exploitation at the end of a supply chain. Corporations are better set up to handle the damage that such revelations may or may not do to their reputations and sales. And ‘trade justice activism’ like this is now pitched by production companies to broadcasters as a form of ‘buzzy’ media content. But, for us, there are glimmers of a more complex theory of change at work here. Less than a week after Barbie’s dirty secrets was broadcast, a China Labor Watch report was published that detailed exploitative and dangerous factory conditions in Barbie factories in China. Isobel Yeung refers to such a report in the film. The role that Barbie’s dirty secrets therefore had, we speculate, was to work alongside this NGO research, to make the report’s findings public, and to connect accusations of Mattel’s feminist corporate hypocrisy through the same media as the Barbie movie: film. Should anyone studying trade justice activism expect to final any single example having an impact in and of itself? No. And is possible to follow just one thing? It doesn’t look like it here. Check the comments below.
Blood, sweat & takeaways Girl model UDITA Mangetout
INGREDIENTS
INTENTIONS
Pop the bubble Cross cultures Show capitalist evils Tell the truth Teach economic geography Show what’s possible
TACTICS
Have a theory of change Choose an audience Make it familiar Bring managers into view Involve consumers Fund the unions Humanise workers Workers take the mic! Lie to tell the truth Silence your critics
RESPONSES
This is so sad Capitalism is sh*t I won’t buy it Liar! Fraud! It’s so badly mad Who to believe? I’m humming that music These people are inspiring
IMPACTS
Now I know Now we’re talking I shop differently now Corporations change Governments intervene Debts are paid off Can’t tell
“You can’t Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V resistance“
By Lucian Harford
IN BRIEF
Student Lucian Harford has taken the ‘Geographies of material culture’ module at the University of Exeter. He’s been watching trade justice documentaries, analysing the comments on their followthethings.com pages, and making sense of them using a draft copy of ‘The followthethings.com handbook for trade justice activism’. He knows a thing or two about how trade justice documentaries work and what they can do. He’s’s been asked to imagine meeting a filmmaker who’s planning a new trade justice documentary. What advice could he give? Well, it turns into a bit of a rant. He’s been riled up by these films and the ways that they’ve been discussed on their followthethings.com pages. He ends up giving some stark, unexpected advice. We can’t give you the spoiler here though.
More about this page.
We are slowly piecing together a followthethings.com handbook for trade justice activism and are publishing draft pages here as we write them. This is an ‘advice’ page. The main text is an example of student work from the ‘Geographies of material culture’ module which followthethings.com CEO Ian ran at the University of Exeter in the 2024-25 academic year. Students watched 8 films, and read their pages on followthethings.com (with the expeption of an unfinished film called The ginger trail). They were asked to pair the comments brought together on each of the films’ followthethings.com pages with the appropriate ingredients phrases (naming their intentions, tactics, responses and impacts – show in bold below) being drafted for the Handbook. Using these phrases as a pattern language (see FAQs), students were tasked to work out how specific intentions (e.g. improve workers’ pay & conditions) needed specific tactics (e.g. flip the script) to generate different kinds of responses (e.g. this is disgusting), which could generate different kinds of impacts (e.g. audiences are empowered). [NB pages about each of these ingredients are coming soon] At the end of the module, students were asked to imagine that they had met someone who was about to make their first trade justice documentary. Drawing on what they had learned in the module, what advice could they give them on how to make it effective?
When it escapes the cinema room and ambushes you in Aisle 3, Sainsburyâs, Exeter, EX1 3PF. Let me contextualise. December 2024. Deep in my nectar price era đ¤, zigzagging Pinhoe Sainsburyâs. Iâm on a mission. Marx wouldâve hated me. Classic case of commodity fetishism (Cook et al., 2002).
Sainsbury’s Exeter store.
29th of March 2025. Day after my last Geographies of Material Culture seminar. Iâm back in Sainsburyâs. Innocent enough, right? Wrong. Aisle 3. Midway between the mangetout and the courgettes. Boom – my brain betrays me.
It whispers: âTescoâs our dear friend.â đ
I froze. Kenyan broccoli gave me side-eyes. Ghanaian pineapples look like theyâre organising a strike. Jamaican bananas are silently mourning my moral compass. đ It was no longer a food shop but a postcolonial reckoning under migraine-inducing strip lightingâŚâŚ..cheers (Cook and Harrison, 2003). Thanks, material culture films. You broke me. But like⌠in a good way? I guess consumption with a conscience is better than nothing (Wenzel, 2011). Now Iâm spiralling. If a film can do that to me (burrow into my nectar choices and trolley). Is that⌠â¨effectiveâ¨? đ¤ Do you even know what â¨effective⨠means? Hereâs a clue. Have a theory of change.
Screenshot from the Handbook.
No, itâs not just some academic buzzword. Itâs your ‘how’. HOW does ‘X’ lead to ‘Y’ (Duncombe, 2023). Think about it like a chain. Your activismâs intentions need the right tactics, as they likely to lead to specific responses and impacts. Example: If you want your filmâs response – IDK – to be ‘capitalism is sh*t‘ and its impact to be ‘I shop differently now‘ đ (or go bigger: corporations change!), then it needs the correct intentions and tactics to hopefully lead to this.
Screenshots from the Handbook.
Thatâs a theory of change 101! Easy, rightâŚâŚ.?? NOPE. Thats what REALLY pisses me off. đ¤ â ď¸ Disclaimer: This might turn into a crazy rant â ď¸
Right. Say you want to make a film to take down capitalism (slay). If thatâs where youâre starting, go back and watch Mark Phillips’ Mangetout (1997). It dropped right before the 1999 Battle of Seattle, a pivotal moment when people really started calling out the global trade injustice screwing over the Global South (Bannister and Bergan, 2023).
Mangetout popped the bubble as it was the âfirst time British viewers were confronted with their most popular supermarket, Tescoâ (Millar in Cook et al., 2025, np). And it crossed cultures of the đŤpea. From farm đżđź to shelf đŹđ§.
Screenshots from the Handbook.
It introduced Grannie Chabvundira, âa 25-year-old mangetout caterpillar inspectorâ (Philips in ibid), who drops the line: âlife is too hardâ (Mangetout, 2005 time 41.12), becuase of F***ing Tescoâs!!! đł
Screenshot of Grannie talking in Mangetout.
Unlike Grannie, Tesco manager Mark Dady was brought into view. On the farm, Mark and his team âwere treated like Godsâ (OâMally in Cook et al., 2025, np). âIt was sickeningâ (ibid). đ¤˘
Screenshots from the Handbook.Screenshot of Mark Dady’s arrival at the farm where Grannie worked in Mangetout.
Afterwards, âTesco became evil [or sh*t]for meâ (Chapman in ibid). I too questioned my damn shopping habits and thought ‘I wonât buy it!’ â
Screenshots from the Handbook.
Seems a good impact? You might think, ‘to be â¨effectiveâ¨, I gotta do what Mangetout did’. Not so fast, young activist, itâs not that simple. đ Introducing Blessing. âChief mange-tout picker at Chiparaweâ (Hall in ibid). He has never been to Tesco.
Screenshot + quotation from Mangetout.
Hopefully, the penny has dropped for you as it did for me. Blessingâs life isnât anyoneâs to interpret. Thereâs no blueprint for â¨effective⨠activism, no one path to impact. People, contexts, and strategies vary, too (Duncombe, 2024).
Itâs like me saying Mangetout existed to make JUST ME and YOU 𫵠feel something. #Embarrassed #Selfish đ So. You should choose an audience. Nisbet and Aufderheide (2009) say mobilisation begins with specificity. Your film doesnât need everyone. Just the right people.
Screenshots from the Handbook.
Take Nick Broomfieldâs 2006 film Ghosts, it knew who to talk to. Its ‘X’ was to show capitalist evils and blow the lid off the Morecambe Bay disaster to âestablish our complicity as consumers in the workersâ fateâ (McCahill in Allen et al., 2025 np). đŤĽ
Take this scene. Read the subtitles! Ai Quin & her co-worker are in a Tesco store. Before they harvested cockles in Morecambe Bay, they’d picked spring onions Tesco. Ghosts ripped the packaging open and said: ‘Theyâre not just onions. Theyâre testimonies of struggle’ (Cook & Woodyer, 2012).
Ghosts âshowed the dark side of globalisationâ (Bradshaw in Allen et al., 2025, np). It didnât just say the politics of consumption are broken. It âmade for an uncomfortable viewingâ (Tinniswood in ibid), making Tinniswood feel globalisation’s fracture lines (Hartwick, 2000). đ¤ Great! Now I know about âthe appalling circumstancesâ (Tang in Allen et al., 2025, np) of the Morecambe Bay disaster, and that Ghosts encouraged audience to donate momey to pay off the debts of the drowned workers’ famililes in China. A couple of ‘Ys’ for this film. đ
Screenshots from the Handbook.
That’s good impact, butâŚâŚ in my opinion … MORECAMBE BAY SHOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!! đ¤Ź
Iâm getting riled up. Letâs talk irony and absurdity. Ilha das Flores, is a 1989 pseudo-doc that teaches economic geography as âdeep as a punch in the stomachâ (@nacaotutumbaie3559 in Pavalow, 2025 np). Itâs about ‘capitalism, told through the story of a tomatoâ (Delaney, in ibid).
Screenshot from the Handbook
The film, particularly this scene at the end (read subtitles đ), made me feel like âan alien watching a documentary about inequality on Earthâ đ˝ (@Canalinfantilreinabowwfriends in ibid).
Screenshots from Ilha das Flores.
People raved! âWhat an incredible documentaryâ (@rosangelafigueiredo6082 in ibid), and it was crowned âthe best Brazilian short film ever madeâ (Anon in ibid)! đ Itâs haunting, clever, and people âremember it very wellâ (@AndersonPedron in ibid). Its impact? I canât tellâŚđ¤ˇ
Screenshot from the Handbook
What now? Let’s try another example. Your intention could be topop the bubble – because âwhen it comes to food, we are spoilt for choice, but would we feel the same if we knew the human cost?â (Anon in Clarke et al., 2025 np) – and your tactics could be to make it familiar and involve some consumers. ‘X’ clearly leads to ‘Y’?
Screenshots from the HandbookScreenshots from the Handbook.
This is what BBC 3âs Blood Sweat and Takeaways series did. It followed âsix typical young British food consumersâ (Cuthbertson in ibid) who were dumped into the sweat and steam of Southeast Asiaâs food production lines. One, â[Manos] was annoying from the first 5 minsâ (HairHolic in ibid) after kindly being hosted at a supply chain workerâs home.
Screenshot from Blood, sweat & takeaways.
Another, Olu, then body slams Manos into a glass wall in a tuna factory. đŤ
Screenshot from Blood, sweat & takeaways.
It was like watching Love Island sweatshop edition! These consumers were insane! Honestly, it was âso excruciating that youâre tempted toâ (Ferguson in ibid) turn off this badly made âscripted drama bsâ (keikurooka5105 in ibid) đ¤Ź.
NĂĽls (2018) was right. By involving the wrong consumers/characters, you risk your audience sitting back partially detaching, watching suffering like itâs another episodeâŚ..or worse fully detaching.
Tactic screenshots from the HandbookResponse screenshots from the Handbook
Need proof? Read below đŹ đđ
I know its a little off topic but does anyone know what song it is at 36.14, I really like it (Source: hyperventil8 2012 np link).
The song is called âWe Walkâ by The Ting Tings (Source: TopshelferDude 2012 np link).
Does anyone know the song @ 53:50 i want to know please reply D: (Source: theMarcus4131 2012 np link).
Song is âKidsâ by MGMT (Source: TopshelferDude 2012 np link).
F**k you for putting Chemical Brothers and Justice on such a sh*tty documentary (Source: anevershiftingsun 2012 np link).
Discussion of Blood, sweat & takeaways in Clarke et al (2025, np).
Okay, I need to breathe. You need to breathe. This rant is not over. â Letâs talk about another example. And lies. Yes – LIES. Your doc could lie to tell the truth. Sorry, not sorry. đ
Screenshot from the Handbook.
Stam (2016) said it. Documentaries are not âpureâ, never were. Never will be. 𫢠Take Primark: On the Rack. The 2008 documentary followed a thing (a sequin top) by using âhidden camerasâ (McDougall in Adley et al., 2025 np) to uncover âthe use of child labour in the finishing of cheap clothesâ (ibid). Stam would love this đ¤Ł
Screenshots from Primark – on the rack.
This was connective aesthetics – grabbing your senses, stirring emotions, making you realise that every time you throw on a ÂŁ3 Primark tee (Cook et al., 2000). But youâre also watching âthree boys in a Bangalore workshop testing stitchingâ (Anon in Adley et al., 2025 np). So this crashed headfirst into the very myth it challenged. đ And Primark tried to silence its critics. They cried LIAR, FRAUD!!!
Screenshots from the Handbook.
The âfootage could not be genuineâ (Primark in ibid). Primark even set up a website: âwww.primarkresponse.comâ, showing âwhat Primark had to do to expose this false claim and clear our nameâ (ibid). What a MESS! Now. Over to one commenter, Siddy_06 𼲠: ‘What are we meant to dooo?! I wish someone would tell me, If I get what I would buy from another shop, who can guarantee they are not doing the same thing?’ (in ibid). YES, SIDDY_06. SCREAM IT. LOUDER. FOR. THE. PEOPLE. IN. THE. BACK. Who to believe!!!!!???? đ
Screenshot from the Handbook.
Levine (2007) would probably argue that SIDDY_06âs scepticism wasnât just ignorance or rejection – it was a complex, socially driven response to fear, stigma, and mistrust of authority in the trade justice movement. Just when youâve understood that. Now, enter Wallace Heim (2003) who says the power of a documentary lies in sowing seeds for future rethinking – quiet mindset changes that bloom into something bigger.
Thanks for the mind f*ck Wall-Ace. But WTF is one meant to do! Scatter â¨effective⨠seeds into the wind and hope something grows (see Duncombe 2024)!? ActuallyâŚ.. maybe Wall-Ace has a point. đ If your film just tells the truth and holds it up to the light, maybe beautiful â¨effectiveness⨠will bloom. Honesty is the best policy, isnât it?
TBF, the film Uditashows whatâs possible by telling the truth. Screw the official story đĽą. The real truth lies in those who live and tell their stories (Zeng, 2017).
Screenshotted intentions from the Handbook.
Udita plunges you into the chaos before, during, and after the Rana Plaza disaster to reveal âan extraordinary and raw insight into the lives of the female factory workers in Bangladeshâ (Posh in Barker et al., 2025 np). It humanises garment workers đđ˝ by finding their unions âđ˝ and letting them take the mic đ¤.
Screenshotted tactics from the Handbook.Screenshots from UDITA.
It was âheart breakingâ (McCulloch in ibid) to watch; I know how they feel. This is so sad. âMy heart goes out to the aged grandmother who lost her two daughters at Rana Plazaâ (Schon-Meier in ibid). đ˘ But wait – pause the sadness for a second. âA lot of films and articles portray garment workers as victimsâ (Minney in Ibid), but in Udita, these people are âinspiring on a global levelâ (Hoskins in ibid)!
Screenshotted responses from the Handbook.
OMG â THEN – âTrade unionists, workersâ rights activists, and local community groups will gatherâ (Salmon in ibid). NOW WEâRE TALKING. BOOM! đĽ ! Governments started intervening! There was an âacceleration in legislative change in Franceâ (Evans in ibid) because âRana Plaza was covered by newspapers, petitions of NGOS, film, and documentariesâ (ibid). Like this.
Screenshotted impacts from the Handbook.
There’s a well evidenced ‘X’ to ‘Y’ sequence here. You intend to show what’s possiblewith trade justice activism and totell the truth about workers’ involvement in it. You use tactics that can humanise them, by finding their unions and letting them take the mic. This could lead to audiences responding with sadness about their struggles and/or inspiration about their achievements. And your film’s impacts could simply be the talk that it sparks about these tradwe justice struggles and the chance that – added to other activists’ work on this topic – this could help encourage governments to intervene.
But WAIT! â Donât grab your camera just yet. Time to pop your bubble again (for the last time). Just cus it worked in Bangladesh doesnât mean you can Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V resistance (Demos, 2010). Grassroots power matters, but remember MorecambeâŚ..? Rana Plaza…? They should have never F***ing happened in the first place!! đ¤Ź. NGL, when the whole global economy runs on exploitation, chasing â¨documentary effectiveness⨠just looks like damage control (Harvey, 2010).
RIGHT, Iâve humoured this long enough!! Hereâs the truth! I CANâT TELL YOU HOW TO MAKE AN â¨EFFECTIVE⨠TRADE JUSTICE DOCUMENTARY! đ Cus if youâve learnt anything on this commodities-lit, capitalist-infused, GEO3123 rant. Itâs this! THERE IS NO SINGULAR CORRECT WAY! đŠ IT ALL ADDS UP! Real change is messy! Itâs chaos! Contradiction and unexpected moments are what really move the trade justice movement along (Connor and Phelan, 2013).
Screenshotted tactic from the Handbook.
Now this is … awkward. After all this ranting, yes technically all the films I told you about were effective … just in their own ways. #AWKWARD đ¤ŤđŤŁ
HOWEVER! Hereâs my theory of change for you. To be effective in the trade justice movement DON’T make a documentary. đ Mic â Drop đ¤ Put the camera down. Take your budget, kit, and big activist dreams. Give them to the unions, co-ops, and grassroots groups already knee-deep in it. Do it for Grannie & Blessing in Mangetout. For Ai Qin & coworkers in Ghosts. For the boys in Primark: On the Rack. For the women in Udita. Supply chain workers donât need retakes to show struggle. They live it! đ
Rant Over.
Screenshot from Mangetout.Screenshot from the Handbook.
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