Animal rights charity PETA might court controversy to get its message across but there is no arguing with its commitment. From running Christmas posters featuring a severed dog’s head on a seasonal platter to showing the savagery of octopus farming, the charity’s hard-hitting approach is uncompromising.
But this week it appears to be going even further to expose the cruelty behind Hermès’ crocodile-skin bags, which sell for anything up to $200,000 on the resale market. It is launching a new DIY (dismember it yourself) video directed by Dave Meyers, who has worked with Kendrick Lamar, Missy Elliott, Ariana Grande, and Harry Styles, among many others.
In the clip, a cheery fashion vlogger teaches the audience how to make a “Hermès Birkin bag” from scratch, starting with a live, three-year-old crocodile.
The video, created in collaboration with The Community ad agency, shows the content creator assembling all the tools needed for the job: some glue, a ruler, a tarp for the floor, a knife, and a screwdriver, before getting to work.
“You’re going to grab your long screwdriver, and it takes a bit of strength, but just plunge it into the brain and shove it down the spine,” the vlogger says, as blood splatters everywhere. “We’re going to peel this bad boy like a banana. It’s going to look so classy!”
In a blurred out sequence, she then proceeds to slice up the crocodile and stitch it back together, revealing the finished Birkin bag at the end.
The organisation points out that in nature, baby alligators “chirp” from inside their eggs to signal their mother that it’s time to hatch, while crocodiles form strong social bonds and can live to 80 years old.
PETA’s undercover exposé into farms that supplied reptile skins to Hermès-owned tanneries revealed crocodiles crammed into filthy concrete pits and alligators packed into fetid pools, where they languished for months before being violently slaughtered. Workers were documented cutting into young alligators’ necks – while they were still conscious – and ramming metal rods down their spines or into their brains to kill them.
A growing number of top designers, including Chanel, Stella McCartney, Victoria Beckham, Burberry, Hugo Boss, and Vivienne Westwood, have banned the animal skins from their collections. PETA is calling on Hermès to follow suit.
PETA vice president of corporate projects Yvonne Taylor said: “Fashionistas wouldn’t want to be caught dead with a Birkin if they had to make one themselves by hacking an animal to pieces.
“PETA calls for consumers everywhere to drop animal skins in favour of luxurious vegan accessories that no one had to be butchered for.”
So, what is the consensus around the Decision Marketing office?
Well, to be fair, if this doesn’t put you off buying a Birkin bag, you need help – or maybe to spend some time alone with a few adult crocodilians…
It’s pretty graphic stuff, despite the use of blurred out imagery, and certainly not for the faint hearted. Then again, there is little point beating about the bush, this is the harsh reality of the fashion industry.
PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”. Can you really argue against that?
Decision Marketing Adometer: A “crocodile shock” 10 out of 10
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