Some things cost more than you realise
:: 25 november 2009
Here is another great example of using communications or contemporary media to communicate an important message. Many of you will be aware of Radiohead’s album ‘In Rainbows’. But many of you may not be aware of the video for the song ‘All I Need’. The film shows two parallel stories: that of a boy in the West, and the other of a life very different in the East. One boy works in a shoe factory and the other ends up buying a shoe made by the first. The video is the result of a partnership with a campaign against human trafficking, which was then promoted by MTV. The video was filmed in Australia by Oscar-winning cinematographer John Seale and directed by Steve Rogers.
The issue of child labor is an issue that corporations and the public need to take seriously. Primark is the most well known UK fashion house to get into trouble for using suppliers who employ child labourers. But this is by no means a UK problem. Nor is it confined to the fashion industry. But this is the underbelly of our successful economy and not many people like to look at it for too long. However, if CSR is to be taken seriously, and become anything more than a mechanism for companies to protect themselves against green activists, then the leaders of our companies need to look at, and understand the ramifications of, the choices they and their employees make.
