In the gear up to Christmas and New Year, I wanted to write a meaningful post. One which will change my readers' thoughts, and hopefully their actions for the better. There were a lot of options tossed on the table (like why people should join online reunions - thanks J & S). But then I woke up on this fine Sunday morning and came across something fairly disturbing.
As some of you may know, I am keen or getting my feet firmly into PR world and am an avid reader of PR-related news and academic articles. This morning, however, I was not conducting yet another search on top PR campaigns. Yet, I came across (via social media) a very powerful PR campaign. One that relates to our consumerist age and the impacts of mindless and excessive shopping.
Recently I posted a photo (see above) on my Facebook page (click on the circle button to the right) about buying local produce and how that can help someone in your community pay college or their child's dance lessons. Last year I also wrote an article for my university's student press about the effects of Christmas frenzy shopping and how the environment and the factory workers were suffering just to make our holidays "filled with joy".
But this is on a whole new level. This campaign is not here just for Christmas and the Boxing day sales which will ensue. It is here to stay and I am sure it is one you will remember for years. The original writer asked for this to be reblogged and I am happy to oblige. Read on, my dears, but be aware it may be a bite too big to swallow:
“A young woman was restrained, force-fed and injected with cosmetics in a high street shop window as part of a hard-hitting protest against animal testing.
Jacqueline Traide was tortured in front of hundreds of horrified shoppers in a bid to raise awareness and end the practise.
The 24-year-old endured 10 hours of experiments, which included having her hair shaved and irritants squirted in her eyes, as part of a worldwide campaign by Lush Cosmetics and The Humane Society.
The disturbing stunt took place in Lush’s Regent Street store, one of the UK’s busiest shopping streets.
Jacqueline appeared genuinely terrified as she was pinned down on a bench and had her mouth stretched open with two metal hooks while a man in a white coat force-fed her until she choked and gagged.
The artist was also injected with numerous needles, had her skin braised and lotions and creams smeared across her face.
Passers-by were gobsmacked to see Jacqueline, a social sculpture student at Oxford Brookes University, forced to have a section of her head shaved.
The gruesome spectacle aimed to highlight the cruelty inflicted on animals during cosmetic laboratory tests and raise awareness that animal testing is still a common practise.
The Humane Society International and Lush Cosmetics have joined forces to launch the largest-ever global campaign to end animal testing for cosmetics.
The campaign, launched to coincide with World Week for Animals in Laboratories, is being rolled out simultaneously in over 700 Lush Ltd shops across forty-seven countries including the United States, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Russia.
Lush campaign manager Tamsin Omond said: “The ironic thing is that if it was a beagle in the window and we were doing all these things to it, we’d have the police and RSPCA here in minutes.
“But somewhere in the world, this kind of thing is happening to an animal every few seconds on average.
“The difference is, it’s normally hidden. We need to remind people it is still going on.”
For more information about the campaign, visit www.fightinganimaltesting.com”
I HOPE EVERYONE READS THIS AND REBLOGS IT!
Yes, it is insane. But it has also made a valid point. I will leave it to the PR experts to determine whether this is a campaign taken to the extreme or a new generation buzz creator. All I know is that it has a strong message behind it. A message that we should all remember.