TACTIC: if you want your activism to go viral, make it short & snappy, catchy & memorable so it can easily be shared on social media & draw big audiences to the issue. They can learn more later.
“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 (2016) The 2 Euro T-Shirt – A Social Experiment. followthethings.com/the-two-euro-t-shirt-experiment.shtml (last accessed <add date here>)
“The Song Of The Shirt“ A poem written by Thomas Hood, published in Punch magazine. Original publication in Punch included above.
Curiosity and concern about the poverty of the people who make everyday commodities is as old as capitalism itself. One of the most iconic and influential examples in this genre is a poem called ‘The Song Of The Shirt’ which was published in the satirical British magazine Punch in 1843. This was 24 years before Karl Marx published the first volume of Capital, with its famous opening chapter on the commodity. The subject of the poem is a woman working in East London making linen shirts for the city’s well-to-do men. It contains lines that wouldn’t be out of place in Twenty-First Century trade justice activism: ‘Oh Men, with Sisters dear! O! Men! With mothers and wives! It’s not linen you’re wearing out. But other creatures’ lives’. ‘The Song Of The Shirt’ went viral through the media of its time, being reprinted and discussed in countless newspapers, pamphlets and books across Great Britain and overseas, often with accompanying illustrations of its subject at work. It also crossed over into ‘Song Of The Shirt’ paintings, songs and plays. But how did the poverty of seamstresses come to the surface, here, at this time? How did this poem become so popular and influential? What can we learn from it today?
Page reference: Rachael Midlen & Charlotte Brunton (2014) The Song Of The Shirt (taster). followthethings.com/the-song-of-the-shirt.shtml (last accessed <add date here>)
“Cries For Help Found In Primark Clothes (a.k.a. ‘Labelgate’)” Social media posts by Rebecca Jones, Rebecca Gallagher, and Amnesty International Northern Ireland. Label photos originally posted online embedded above.
Shoppers Rebecca Jones and Rebecca Gallagher find an extra label in dresses they buy from Primark stores in South Wales. One says ‘Forced to work exhausting hours’, the other ‘Degrading sweatshop conditions’. Belfast shopper Karen Wisinska then finds a letter in the pocket of some Primark shorts. It’s written in Chinese, but starts ‘SOS! SOS! SOS!’. It seems to be a coincidence. Rebecca, Rebecca and Karen post them online to share what they have found with their friends and followers. Their posts set off an international ‘whodunnit?’ which makes the national news and ties the company’s PR department in knots. Are they genuine? Are they mischief-making of an artist or activist? Either way, is what they say true?
Will Kelleher & Ian Cook (2014) Cries for help found in Primark clothes (a.k.a. ‘labelgate’). followthethings.com/cries-for-help-found-in-primark-clothes.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)
“Behind The Leather“ An activist stunt by Ogilvy and Mather Advertising, Bangkok for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia. YouTube video embedded above.
A new luxury store called ‘Leather Works’ opens at the high end CentralWorld mall in Bangkok selling coats, ties, gloves and bags. Shoppers come in to browse. As they touch and try them on, they see flesh, bones, muscles and sinews inside. As they open the handbags, there are beating hearts too. Shoppers get blood on their hands. This leather was clearly ripped from the bodies of crocodiles, snakes, lizards and other ‘exotic’ animals. It’s like a scene from a horror film. Shoppers recoil in shock. These luxury leather goods are disgusting. The video goes viral. Behind this shopping prank is an NGO called People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the ad agency Ogilvy & Mather who made it all for them. PETA’s Asia office wants to draw attention to the cruel conditions under which ‘exotic’ animals are farmed and butchered for luxury leather fashion. But how genuine, how ethical, can a ‘hidden camera’ stunt like this be? What can these shock tactics do?
Page reference: Ian Cook et al (2024) Behind The Leather (taster). followthethings.com/behind-the-leather.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)
“Dream Crazy“ An advertising campaign for Nike by the Wieden+Kennedy agency. Video ad embedded ABOVE. Full campaign materials here.
It’s the 30th anniversary of Nike’s ‘Just Do it’ campaign. So the advertising agency hired by the brand most associated with sweatshops hires an African American football player called Colin Kaepernick to front it. He’s the quarterback who became famous in 2016 for taking the knee during the national anthem before games because, he said, ‘I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color’. After George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in 2020, taking the knee became associated with support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Condemned as unpatriotic by many, including President Trump, Nike was courting controversy by making Kaepernick the figurehead of its campaign. But he could show that by ‘dreaming crazy’, marginalised people like himself could excel. And Nike could be part of this. But strange things happened. People who did’t like Kaepernick and the Black Lives Matter movement started burning their Nike gear, criticising its production overseas by sweatshop workers and boycotting the brand. Others normally critical of Nike said they’d buy more from them because of their support for BLM. Others asked why the lives of Nike’s Black consumers and consumers of color mattered more than the lives of their Black producers and producers of color. What did Kaepernick know and think about these marginalised people and their dreams before he took Nike’s money? This kind of advertising – where, for example, civil rights are used to mask labour rights – is called woke-washing. Nike seems to be running this campaign to stir controversy, by launching it on Labor Day bang into the US’s toxic ‘culture war’ around BLM. This campaign itself isn’t trade justice activism. But the responses to it are. The debates that it can take you into are around ‘systemic racism’ and ‘racial capitalism’. Why is it that the workers trade justice activists are concerned about tend to live in the Global South and be people of colour while the consumers they address tend to live on the Global North and seem by default to be white? How did that happen? Can trade justice / follow the thing activism be decolonised? Who would do this work? What commodities would they trace from where to where? What would they make for what kinds of audiences to act upon? And you might be wondering if this controversial campaign does Nike any harm. No. Its impact was much more about the uncomfortable, progressive, ‘mind-f$@k’ conversations that it sparked. Thank you Colin…
Page reference: Louise Mason, Maddy Shackley, Izzie Jeffrey, Megan Holden, Sophia Stainer, Emily Taylor, Andrew Gamble & Monty Leaman (2018) Dream Crazy. followthethings.com/dream-crazy.shtml (last accessed <add date here>)
“Socks“ Undergraduate coursework written by David Roberts, published in the Teaching Geography journal. Full text above. Reference below (Cook et al 2007).
The students’ first task in the ‘Geographies of Material Culture’ module at the University of Birmingham is to make a personal connection between their lives and the lives of others elsewhere in the world who made the things they buy. These are the people who help you to be you, followthethings.com CEO Ian tells them. So choose a commodity that matters to you, that’s an important part of your identity, that you couldn’t do without. Think about its component parts, its materials, and what properties they give to that commodity and your experience of ‘consuming’ it. And write a 500 word first person account that connects your lives via that thing. One student – David Roberts – thinks about his Marks & Spencer socks. He has a drawer full of them. And none of them has a ‘made in’ label. After some online detective work, he’s finds one pair were made for him far away in Bulgaria in a factory owned by an Israeli company that’s fighting battles against consumers boycotting their goods because they’re also made by non-unionised workers in factories in Palestine’s Occupied Territories. Marks & Spencer encourages its shoppers to ‘Look Behind The Label’. And that’s exactly what he’s done. He finds some uncomfortable geopolitical issues are protecting his feet.
Page reference: David Roberts (2006) Socks. followthethings.com/socks.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)
“Ballet Shoes“ Undergraduate coursework written by Maya Motamedi, published in the Primary Geography journal. Full text below.
The students’ first task in the ‘Geographies of Material Culture’ module at the University of Birmingham is to make a personal connection between their lives and the lives of others elsewhere in the world who made the things they buy. These are the people who help you to be you, followthethings.com CEO Ian tells them. So choose a commodity that matters to you, that’s an important part of your identity, that you couldn’t do without. Think about its component parts, its materials, and the properties they give to that commodity and your experience of ‘consuming it’. And write a 500 word first person account that connects your lives. One student – Maya Motamedi – is a ballet dancer. She loves her Grishko pointe shoes. They’re part of her dancing body. After some online detective work, she’s finds who made them for her, far away in Russia. The shoes’ component parts come from plenty of other places. This kind of thinking, this kind of detective work, means you are never alone, never do anything by yourself! The lives of thousands of people are wedged into those shoes, says Maya, dancing with her.
“Handprint“ A short fashion film by Mary Nighy for Livia Firth’s EcoAge consultancy. Uploaded to YouTube & embedded in full above.
The elegant, graceful actor and model Eletrra Wiedemann, wrapped in a towel after a brisk shower, walks through her beautiful apartment, designer clothes strewn everywhere. As she chooses a red dress, other people’s hands appear to help her get it on, her jewellry on, her shoes on. She doesn’t flinch until she sees the people whose hands these were in a mirror. This film isn’t about the footprint of her clothes. It’s about the handprint. These are the people who made them for her. In the room. With her. Helping her to get dressed. Every day. She couldn’t do it without them. Gulp. This film was made for an exclusive fashion industry audience to encourage them to take care of supply chain workers in the wake of the Rana Plaza factory collapse. It was later published online for a wider audience. What impacts could this vision have on them? What can we find out?
Page reference:Ian Cook et al (2020) Handprint. followthethings.com/handprint.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)
“The Eternal Embrace“ A photograph by Taslima Akhter. Photo blurred due to sensitive content. Available online.
Bangladeshi photographer and activist Taslima Akhter visits the ruins of the collapsed Rana Plaza factory. On April 24th 2013, over 1,100 garment workers were crushed to death there as they made clothes for high street brands including GAP, Primark and H&M. In the rubble, she spots two dead factory workers – a woman and a man – who appear to have died in each other’s arms. Her head is tipped back and a bloody tear has fallen from his eye. She takes a photo and posts it online. There are thousands of press photos of the disaster, but this one is said by many to be the most heart-wrenching and haunting. Commentators are repelled and drawn to its horror and beauty in equal measure. What were the final moments of these garment workers’ lives like? What was their relationship? What caused them to be killed like this? What impacts can a photo like this have on people who buy clothes made in factories like this? It’s profound.
Page reference: Nancy Scotford (2013) The Eternal Embrace. followthethings.com/the-eternal-embrace.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)
“Help Me Please PMP Staff Are Evil“ An anonymous note found in a make-up advent calendar ordered from amazon.co.uk and reported in the Daily Mirror newspaper. Photograph of note reproduced above.
‘A mum says her teenage daughter discovered a ‘help me’ note hidden inside an Amazon Christmas delivery. Kim Dorsett said April, 13, found the words scrawled onto an invoice inside a £30 make-up advent calendar ordered by her dad Philip. The note said: ‘Help me please, PMP staff are evil.’ PMP is the recruitment agency used by Amazon to fill jobs at its distribution sites. The discovery comes just over a week after a Sunday Mirror investigation exposed shocking working conditions inside Amazon’s huge warehouse in Tilbury, Essex’ (Source: Selby & Taylor 2017, np link).
Page reference: Ian Cook et al (2024) Help Me Please PMP Staff Are Evil (holding page). followthethings.com/help-me-please.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)
