Spotted in the window of the Hampstead branch of Body Shop, is this the most ludicrous bit of marketing ever? For once words almost fail me. But not quite.
The poster reads:
NNOO Stop sex trafficking of children & young people.
Wanna know how? Read further down below the "SALE CONTINUES IN-STORE" sticker embazoned across their message:
NEW Soft Hands Kind Heart Hand Cream
£3.45 from your purchase is donated to our campaign partner, ECPAT, who are actively working to stop the trafficking and sexual exploitation of children and young people in the UK and around the world. Their future is in our hands.
thebodyshop.com/stop
Great! Stop sexpoloitation with your soft hands. Give silky smooth hand-jobs with this cream — hey, as long as they're free, gurls. Maybe sex workers can combat their own oppression by purchasing Body Shop cosmetics. One product buying another? Compassion as commodity? What a brilliant illustration of the objectification of human beings under capitalism.
Of course, if you don't buy it then you are a hatchet-faced scumbag who might as well be taking the tenners at the door while whey-faced adolescents get gang-banged by armies of swarthy paedos.
I was told by the Body Shop's very own Hall Monitor, an imperious assistant, that I'm "not allowed to take photographs of their shop", even from the street! Which only pissed me off even more. She had been told to enforce this by the company (under new management since Anita Roddick sold out to L'Oreal because She Was Worth It), so does that mean they KNOW their campaign will be a source of derision?
Cynical? Just nuts? I couldn't possibly comment.
