Tag: Involve consumers

TACTIC: trade justice activism is often made for ‘consumer’ audiences. They’re supposed to react to activists’ depictions the lives of producers. But what if ‘consumers’ were also in the picture, learning about the people who make the things they buy? Seeing what they have in common. Maybe changing as a result of these interactions. And, let’s not forget, everyone is a ‘consumer’, including ‘producers’. So…

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The 2 Euro T-Shirt – A Social Experiment

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Fashion

2015
UNBRANDED
T-SHIRT
MADE IN SOUTH ASIA
SOLD IN GERMANY
ACTIVIST VENDING MACHINE
CHANGE CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
DISRUPT THE SUPPLY
CREATE A CHARACTER
INVOLVE CONSUMERS
ENCOURAGE CURIOSITY
MAKE IT SNAPPY
BLAME, SHAME & GUILT

“The 2 Euro T-Shirt – A Social Experiment“
A repurposed vending machine & film made for Fashion Revolution Germany by BBDO & Unit9.
Uploaded to YouTube & embedded in full above.

To mark the second anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Fashion Revolution activists in Germany placed a t-shirt vending machine in a public square in Berlin. Shoppers were invited to insert ‘only 2€’ to buy a t-shirt. Before it was dispensed, however, the machine showed them a short film about ‘Manisha’, one of millions of people working in the sweatshops where it could have been made. Shoppers were then presented two options: to get the t-shirt or to donate the 2€ they inserted to the Fashion Revolution movement. Would ‘people care when they know’? Especially at the ‘point of sale’. That was the experiment. The vending machine filmed shoppers as they decided. What were their reactions? What did they choose to do? The YouTube video went viral. What would you do? Buy or donate?

Page reference: Olivia Boertje, Jo Ryley, Alec James, Tori Carter, Becky Watts and Rachel Osborne (2025) The 2 Euro T-Shirt – A Social Experiment. followthethings.com/the-two-euro-t-shirt-experiment.shtml (last accessed <add date here>)

Estimated reading time: 81 minutes.

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Mardi Gras: Made In China

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Fashion | Gifts & Seasonal

2005
WALMART
KMART
PLASTIC BEADS
MADE IN CHINA
WORN IN THE USA
WORN IN IRAQ
DOCUMENTARY FILM
POP THE BUBBLE
SHOW CAPITALIST EVILS
JUXTAPOSE EXTREMES
HUMANISE WORKERS
HUMANISE THINGS
BRING MANAGERS INTO VIEW
INVOLVE CONSUMERS
CHOOSE AN AUDIENCE
SHOW IT BACK

“Mardi Gras: Made In China“
A documentary film directed by David Redmon for Carnivalesque Films.
First five minutes embedded above. Search online for streaming availability here.

During the Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, USA, a tradition has emerged in which women who bear flesh have strings of plastic beads thrown at them to wear. Filmmaker David Redmon films this revelry and travels to Fuzhou, China to meet the ‘easy to control’ women who make those beads. He films their high speed, low wage, work and returns to New Orleans to show this footage to drunken revellers. He’d done the same thing in Fuzhou, showing the factory workers how the beads they made were ‘consumed’. The film connects women in China making plastic beads for women in the USA to wear, but under very specific, throwaway circumstances. So what were their reactions to seeing these hidden relationships? How did they make sense of this? Or push it to one side? Or find it funny? What happens when labour exploitation meets carnival excess? Where did these beads go afterwards? Who cleaned them up as trash? Why were they sent to US military personnel in Iraq in care packages? And did those factory workers really tell the director that their jobs were fun and well paid? Who can you trust to translate what people tell you? All of these dramas generated heated debate. Not least about trade justice activism like this being a ‘buzzkill’. But what’s the way forward? The film doesn’t suggest one.

Page reference: Grace Chu, Stephanie Hong & Jasmine Lee (2014) Mardi Gras: Made In China. followthethings.com/mardi-gras-made-in-china.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)

Estimated reading time: 53 minutes.

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The Letter In The Saks 5th Avenue Bag

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Fashion | My shopping bag

2012
SAKS 5TH AVENUE
SINGLE USE PAPER SHOPPING BAG
MADE IN CHINA
USED IN THE USA
MESSAGE FROM WORKER
ONLINE POST
CHANGE CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
CHANGE CITIZEN BEHAVIOUR
CHANGE CORPORATE BEHAVIOUR
TELL THE TRUTH
START SOMEWHERE DIFFERENT
WORKERS TAKE THE MIC!
BE THE CHARACTER
ASK FOR HELP
MAKE IT SNAPPY
PUT A MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
INVOLVE CONSUMERS
CULTIVATE RELATIONSHIPS
MAKE IT A MYSTERY

“The Letter In The Saks 5th Avenue Bag“
A letter written by Tohnain Emmanuel Thiong in a Chinese prison factory, found in New York in a Saks 5th Avenue shopping bag by Stephanie Wilson and posted online.
Reproduced in full above.

Stephanie Wilson buys a pair of Hunter rain boots at a high end department store – Saks Fifth Avenue – in New York City. Rummaging through the ‘free with purchase’ bag, she is shocked to find a handwritten letter in English that begins ‘HELP! HELP! HELP!’ and a tiny passport photo. It’s from a Cameroonian man who made that bag it in a Chinese prison factory. With the help of an NGO and a journalist, she finds him. This ‘message in a bottle’ definitely wasn’t a hoax (or was it?). But how was he able to write it? How many did he write? What danger was he in by doing this? All of these questions could be answered. It helped that he’d written his Yahoo email address on the back. And that he was no longer in prison, or in China, when they emailed him. Could a short letter like this have a big impact on the sourcing of these bags? What were the chances that someone would find and act on one? Its discovery, the detective work that it sparked, and the issues that it raised, went viral. Which companies want their branded goods to be made in jail by falsely imprisoned, tortured and molested inmates? It’s not just the commodities that a store sells that shoppers should be worried about. It’s the bags, the tills, the escalators… everything that contributes to the shopping experience. Workers’ rights are everywhere. Including in office furniture allegedly made in US prisons. Fact-check!

Page reference: Will Kelleher & Ian Cook (2014) The Letter In The Saks 5th Avenue Bag. followthethings.com/the-letter-in-the-saks-5th-avenue-bag.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)

Estimated reading time: 37 minutes.

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