|
The other day I received this out-of-the-blue solicitation in my inbox – Hand sewn by survivors of human trafficking… cosmetic and tote bags just in time for your summer vacations and trips to the pool or beach.
I guess they need some way to sell these otherwise pretty generic-looking bags. They followed up with another e-mail touting their “super-cute” blah,blah,blah “…bags sewn by survivors” etc. SUPER-cute! And saving the Survivors of Human Trafficking, too! Think of it… Now normally I wouldn’t have even opened the first e-mail and would have unsubscribed after the second. But, it had Bags in the title, and since I am right now working on my new collection of bags, totes, and duffels, I am all over anything bags-related. (VERY excited about the new line!!!! more on this later.) I have no idea how I even got on this (sex-trafficking-victims) mailing list, and I wonder what the search engines will make of my opening their e-mail. (OK, they didn’t explicitly say sex trafficking…) Obviously they bought some mailing list that I am on from somewhere (not the greatest list, btw, since I am not a potential customer but a soon-to-be competitor.) I guess their Cause Marketing has worked to some degree, since here I am blogging about it, but for me, something seems so wrong with this probably well-intentioned picture… There you are, on vacation, sitting by the pool, and you whip out your new Super Cute tote to get some sunscreen out, and you think, “I’m so glad I helped the Victims of Human Trafficking by buying this bag to use on my vacation!” It’s so nice that the manufacturers can help the poor VHTs by paying them (about 10¢ each bag?) to sew this bag and provide an opportunity to raise awareness of (shamelessly exploit) their misfortune, too! And, the inspirational logos of Love and Freedom must be so comforting to sew up over and over and over again, as they make a sustainable living wage (day labor piece-work, and only if we sell a ton of these bags). Call me cynical, but I wondered if the trafficking the victims endured was to the very factory where the bags are made. OK, I admit that I am more cynical than most. I have no proof at all that any of the above is true, and it’s probably likely that the owners have only the purest of intentions, (and what’s wrong if those intentions include making a lot of money for themselves?) Certainly there are lots and lots of charities that became famous because of the stuff sold on their behalf (Susan B. Komen comes to mind). Harness the power of the Marketplace to help the sick, the poor, the hungry, the downtrodden! – this is the well-worn and dubious technique Cause Marketing, trying to generate sales of what is otherwise just another cheap, mass-produced, disposable, forgetable, piece of…whatever by claiming it will Save the Whales, End the Wars, Cure the Sicknesses. Many, many companies sell something, if not everything, for a Cause, and generate millions for themselves in the process. Customers can buy your stuff AND feel good about helping others!! The more they buy, the more they are helping!!! Take Product Red™, started by Bono in 2006 (an initiative I was very tangentially involved with, because they were looking to manufacture one of the items in New York, so that they could Save the Garment Center, too!). The items sold have raised over $150 million for AIDS in Africa, certainly the worthiest of causes. Gap stores was the main retailer of Product Red apparel (and yes, I had to buy some T-shirts, too), donating 50% of net profits made on the sales and actually trying to produce some of the line in Africa as well. And! – sewing up those T-shirts means that “in a way, Africans are paying for their own healthcare,” says Bono. “It gives them a sense of dignity.” Read more: http://www.oprah.com/style/Oprah-and-Bono-Shop-RED/2#ixzz21C3Dn0YC Why do I suspect it’s all not entirely altruistic? Gap is one of the better companies when it comes to their offshore sourcing policies, and I am sure that they all felt pretty good when they got to give that big check to Bono for AIDS in Africa. Product Red – a textbook example of a successful Cause Marketing campaign. And, for their trouble, Gap keeps the other 50%, sells lots more of their other stuff alongside the Product Red items, and probably gets to take a tax deduction on the donated proceeds.
The color red is used in marketing to stimulate excitement and spending. Nice wall set! It just seems to me that there are cleaner ways to raise money than encouraging the otherwise-unaware to buy something on tragedy’s behalf. Like Rudy Guiliani said after 9/11, that everyone should just go ahead on downtown and go shopping, or the terrorists will have won. That wasn’t exactly Cause Marketing, but it certainly was a crass and simplistic suggestion, as if all that we had lost was our trips to Century 21 and that we could make it all OK if we would just buy a handbag or two. I’m afraid that if I bought one of the Super-Cute bags that I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about the horrors of human trafficking, and that I would be complicit in the victims’ further exploitation. Spending money on something doesn’t make the problem go away, either. Raising consciousness and helping all victims of injustice are worthy goals, but they shouldn’t be appropriated in the name of commerce.
peace, Deborah |
Unconscious Cause Marketing
