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USING THE MEDIA: [anes
THE CLEAN CLOTHES Jamies
CAMPAIGN Activists

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The existing use of media so far has been determined by the local, decentralised nature of the campaign. Local
groups are adapting, editing and redesigning existing material like research results, lines of argumentation and
logos, photos and slogans. The educational material, used by trade unions, schools and churches is very specific
and “customised”, and therefore cannot be used in campaigns which target the general public. Experience has
shown that it is of no use to produce unified, centralised material for awareness-raising purposes. The campaign
is active in 10 European countries, and aims to reach many different audiences. Language is a potential problem
that can cause time-consuming delays to the dissemination of information. Local groups will for certain re-edit
texts and a word-for-word translation from one language to the other can end up being meaningless. At the same
time, research results, eyewitness reports of working conditions and urgent action appeals need to be circulated
quickly. Bad English, which will then be freely interpreted, has a better chance of resulting in a clear statement
than 1:1 translations. A statement in Bahasa given in may 1998 by an Indonesian woman about conditions in fac-
tories producing Levi Strauss clothes was translated by us into English. We found quotes excerpted from this
translation in Austrian newspapers, a brochure of the Swiss CCC, a Flemish newsletter and in documentation used
in the UK by groups negotiating with companies.

Short texts will, most likely, be more effective for awareness-raising purposes than extensive reports. By short we
mean texts that fit on a poster or a postcard, urgent action appeals that only have a few paragraphs or brochures
with equal amounts of pictures as texts. The essential information will be integrated into newsgroups or maga-
zines of the specific target groups. with the right logo and font, people will recognise the information as their own.
E-mail makes distribution easier, but now we're battling the subject line, trying to get attention in four words.
Next to specific groups, there is the general press campaign. On a regular basis it seems necessary to have arti-
cles and photos in the mainstream press. National publicity provides the campaign with a legitimate face so that
small, local groups can feel that their efforts on behalf of the campaign are legitimised. We do too. Reports in the
mass media are indeed reaching large numbers of people, though for a very short time. People will thereby “store”
tiny bits of information in their subconsciousness. Later on they vaguely might have heard of “bad working cir-
cumstances" or “C&A being bad".

There is a whole variety of classical methods to get into the newspapers and onto television: prepare a press re-
lease, organise a press conference, fly over some Asian specialists and witnesses, edit video material, and the
obligatory “action” on the street, in front of a shop, department store or factory gates. Collecting old running shoes
from concerned consumers and dumping them in front of the Adidas office was good for national coverage in
Belgium. A portable shop window visualised production conditions and protests, and travelled from country to
country. Acting in different countries at the same time helps. As part of the international Nike campaign a giant
"Odor Eater" was made in Australia to try to get rid of the “stink” of bad labour conditions in the sports shoe in-
dustry. Among actions aimed at individuals was the Spanish CCC's postcard campaign targeting seven football
players on the Spanish National team--the players were inundated with 50,000 cards from consumers concerned
with working conditions.

The CCC focuses primarily on clothing to tell the story of multinational companies, working conditions and human