Gap Inc.Uses Child Labor

Last week, clothing retailer, Gap Inc., was accused of using child labor in Indian sweatshops to produce a piece of clothing for GapKids. Gap has pulled the controversial clothes from store shelves and immediately launched an investigation. According to Gap, the investigation revealed that a very small portion of a particular order placed with one of its vendors subcontracted to an unauthorized subcontractor without the company’s knowledge or approval. The media has had a field day, with this unfortunate development. NGO’s are asking why the Gap and other companies were not enforcing factory checks before. Gap is attempting to resolve the problem and control the negative repercussions on its corporate image. Gap issued an official statement addressing the accusation.

In 2004, Gap admitted to widespread operational problems from unsafe machinery to child labor violations. The company went to great lengths to turn its image around. During this initial sweatshop controversy the Gap released its first social responsibility report, which is now released annually in an effort combat the negative image. Unfortunately for the Gap, last week’s discovery threatens to unravel Gap’s ethical image and all the good will it created by improving factory conditions since 2004.

Halloween MashUp

A little something fun for Halloween.

Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does.

Following the overwhelmingly successful response to its “Campaign for Real Beauty,” Dove is taking what worked and doing it again.

Last year’s incarnation of the campaign most notably stood out courtesy of the “Evolution” video which epitomized the power of the viral marketing phenomenon.

Seeking to keep its brand image strong and hoping to build on the success of the “Evolution” campaign and its ability to ignite passionate engagement and support from women across the globe, Dove recently launched the next chapter – the “Onslaught” video, which it hopes will recreate the media frenzy and put Dove back in the middle of the conversation.

With almost 300,000 hits and countless blog links in less than a week, it appears that “Onslaught” is set to meet or beat the success of “Evolution.”

-Kamil Walji

Stephaney's Post #2: New technology used to record violence in Burma

In the wake of the violent protests in Myanmar (also known as Burma), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) released that they had successfully retrieved satellite images corroborating the fact that the current government is violating the human rights of those in the country. This September 28, 2007 news release was generated by the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program which is a “non-profit, non-partisan” (retrieved from AAAS website) organization that is dedicated to using scientific measures to mitigate global human rights issues. What makes this release most significant is the fact that due to the international support for those protesting against the Myanmar regime, the government has flagrantly cut off all international journalist coverage, internet capabilities and satellite communications within the country; thereby, not allowing the international community to be kept abreast of the situation in the politically torn nation. Subsequently, due to the Burmese government’s actions, there was a massive outcry from multiple global citizen agencies that spurned a vigorous response from the United Nations and has therefore received a lot of visual and compelling news coverage.

The following articles are in response to the aforementioned AAAS press release: