Prankster activists The Yes Men and anti-sweatshop NGO Clean Clothes Campaign pulled off a major hoax with Adidas.
Prankster activists The Yes Men and anti-sweatshop NGO Clean Clothes Campaign pulled off a major hoax with Adidas. The high-profile action initially presented a more utopian vision of both adidas’ leadership and the future of the brand, with the announcement of Vay Ya Nak Phoan (‘textile’ in Khmer), supposedly a former garment worker and union leader, in a newly created Co-CEO position. Adidas’ new direction was announced through a press release and a fake website, and included the announcement of a fashion show, showcasing #realitywear as part of Berlin Fashion Week - matching adidas' supposed new motto "Own the Reality”.
In contrast to this ethical vision, the second announcement from ‘adidas’ unveiled an offensive new ‘#realitywear’ clothing line, that showcased the brutal, ugly reality of exploitation that underpins adidas’ profits. This was followed by a sold-out fashion show as part of Berlin Fashion Week, debuting the outrageous new line and highlighting adidas’ hypocrisy when it comes to workers’ rights.
The announcement of a former garment worker as Co-CEO meant to highlight that industry change is possible and that adidas could, if they wanted, take real steps to prioritise labour rights by committing to the #PayYourWorkers agreement.
“Clean Clothes Campaign decided something big – and public – was needed, and after months of planning the roll-out was impeccable: carefully branded press releases, convincing replica website landing pages, and name-drops of regular Adidas collaborators. But it wasn’t just the subterfuge that helped the hoax go down so well, it was also that it played on a collective appetite for radical change.”
— Sophie Benson, The Independent, “The Adidas hoax that fooled an industry. Why were people so willing to believe it?”
“The erroneous coverage of the fake co-CEO and Berlin fashion event became so widespread that Adidas publicly stated Monday that both were fake.”
— Rosemary Feitelberg, Jean Palmieri, Women’s Wear Daily, “‘Adidas Fashion Fiasco’ Leaves Questions Unanswered”
“The performance achieved its goal: to raise doubts and question the economic model and the responsibility of large corporations.”
— Triana Alonso, Fashion Network, “Activists target Adidas with spoof event at Berlin Fashion Week”
“What we want to achieve is for Adidas to start a conversation and stop ignoring these issues. It's about time they start talking and engaging with campaigners and NGOs.”
— Len Leng, who played Vay Ya Nak Phoan in Fortune
“With the action at the beginning of Berlin Fashion Week, the artists not only denounced the exploitative mechanisms or the marketing and greenwashing of the fashion industry. In the end, the media also got their money's worth. Some of them picked up on the false press release, thus putting the artists on the spot and revealing how close truth and false news can be in a fast-moving media world.”
— Weixin Zha, Fashion United, “Berlin Fashion Week: New York artist collective plays prank on Adidas”
“The people who were there were there to see Adidas, they want to buy Adidas stuff, they may have come wearing it. And they'd rather have clothes that were made without workers suffering.”
— Mike Bonnano from the Yes Men in Fortune
