False Fair Trade Advertising - Red Engine at Flinders St
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At uni I’ve seen some cafes passing their Rainforest Alliance coffee off as “fair trade”, I’m semi-ok with this (thought obviously Hooked has had a few words with each cafe and tried to get them on board with the real deal), but on Saturday, for the first time I saw some real, false fair trade advertising that has left me angry and confused.
If you’re a frequent public transport user you’ve no doubt seen the Red Engine kiosks on the platforms at Flinders St station and elsewhere. Well recently they’ve been running a promotion that gives you a free bag when you purchase certain products - Big M’s, chocolates, ice-creams, etc. Anyway, my fiance and I were running to catch a train when I noticed this poster:
If you zoom in on the poster, you’ll notice the the prominent fairtrade logo (yes it is part of the poster not some bizarre sort of culture jamming) displayed on the bag. Now I should have been weary as the product list that you could purchase from to receive this “fair trade” bag included Coca-Cola and Cadbury’s, but I thought I should give it a try, just in case, to support this ‘fair trade’ business. Now, Take a look at the actual bag:
It’s a Coca-Cola logo instead of a fair trade one!
Here’s what I think happened. Bite Size Designs, the campaigns designer, seem to have been involved in making a t-shirt for a cafe that served fair trade coffee and must have, when asked to make this promotional poster/bag, for Red Engine just used the logo on the bag to make it look ‘cool’ or for some other unknown reason. I guess no one thought it mattered, or bothered to check, that the actual bag was branded with Coca Cola and that it probably isn’t nice/legal to use the fairtrade logo! This is just my thoughts after browsing their website, but I’m guessing it can’t be more sinister than that.
I’ve contacted Red Engine but am yet to receive a reply, and will be e-mailing FTAANZ today. This, unlike the Rainforest Alliance cases, seems to be a clear case of a company misusing the fairtrade symbol - they got $2 of my money under false pretenses! The Big M didn’t taste that good anyway :(. So, maybe if enough of us email Red Engine they’ll consider offering some fairtrade stuff at their kiosks? It’s worth a short!
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5 Comments, Comment or Ping
Anna
Hi Dev
This is so infuriating - it seems like the whole fair trade thing is just being walked all over or misunderstood. I hope it’s the latter
Great sleuthing skills
A
Nov 2nd, 2006
lantianer
Perhaps they had no idea what the logo meant. They’ve breached trademark laws if so, and could find themselves in some bother. Perhaps it will educate them.
The more who know about fair trade, the better!
Nov 2nd, 2006
Devon Whittle
yeah, I hope so. though they did do the shirts for a fair trade organic cafe so you’d think they have some idea!
i’m not sure if I should email the designer as well as the actual retailer… they both should have checked over the poster to make sure it matched the bag. i hope Red Engine has the courtesy to email me back soon!
Nov 2nd, 2006
john redlich
Devon
l’m returning from overseas in a week, would love to catch up & see what we can do to rectify things with a positive impact on Fair Trade, or any other good causes l suspect you are connecting with.
l am working on some projects currently that l think will interest you.
My mobile 0419552707
John Redlich
Jul 20th, 2008
Devon Whittle
Hey John,
Great to hear that you are concerned with these issues.
The post above was a few years ago now, I would be very interested to hear what you are working now.
Drop me an e-mail if you have time: devonwhittle@james5.org
Jul 21st, 2008
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