It’s estimated that at least 1 in 5 cotton garments in the global clothing market is linked to Uyghur forced labour in Xinjiang, China. And when people buy from brands complicit in using cottons and fabrics sourced from forced labour, they’re unknowingly supporting the detainment, violence, and erasure of an entire heritage and people. With over one million Uyghurs arbitrarily detained, the Human Rights
Foundation (HRF) sought to solicit public action.

When you’re in the hype, you’re not thinking about the harm.

But while people knew about the issue, they still had trouble seeing the connection between Uyghur forced labour and the clothes in their closets and in stores. And when they were caught up in the hype of a new fashion drop, they weren’t thinking about the issue at all.

On June 8th, 2021, Yeezy and Gap took over New York City with nothing more than a picture of a blue jacket and a QR code to officially launch their collaboration. It sold out in hours. As eager shoppers and fashion fans waited for the next item, they had to act fast to turn their eyes from the hype towards the problem.

Within days, they created posters that matched the original Yeezy ads, including a QR code and a blue jumpsuit – the exact kind worn by captive Uyghurs in Xinjiang – and put them up around New York City to make people think it was part of the next drop.

Yeezy fans and fashionistas took the bait. Instead of being directed to a new item on the Gap’s online store, they were brought to their landing page, where they learned the truth about how the fashion industry was supporting human rights abuses, and the steps they could take to shop more consciously.

Instead of calling out one brand, they highlighted how shoppers could untangle themselves from every brand that wasn’t completely clean.

To take things to the next level, and to empower shoppers to act, their landing page drove people to install a Google Chrome extension that warned shoppers every time they were about to buy from a brand known to be complicit in Uyghur forced labour. Not only that, they redirected them to alternative brands that had cut ties with tainted supply chains or had transparent supply chains altogether.

Since the campaign launched, three major global fashion retailers have met in closed door conversations with HRF to talk about Uyghur forced labour; one retailer, a Fortune 500 company with stores across North America, has since committed to taking action and will remove Uyghur forced labour from their supply chain.

The campaign saw a dramatic increase in awareness: most notably, a 631% spike in visits to the campaign website over 72 hours, over 91K social media impressions, and upwards of 7.15 million earned media impressions. They even fooled Reddit users speculating on new Yeezy drops to inadvertently share their message along the way. And their Chrome Extension, available in the US only to start, has since launched in Canada, Australia, and parts of Europe, with close to 700 weekly active users.