Influencers on blast: how a Shein factory trip backfired | About That

when a group of American influencers toward a Chinese clothing Factory recently they probably weren't expecting their own fans their own followers to react like this it influences that factory in China and it's the biggest load of propaganda crap I cannot believe that there are people in this world that are so gullible that they would think that this is even a good idea propaganda alert how quickly do we pick up on propaganda and that is just a taste of the outrage after Sheen one of the largest fast fashion makers on the planet paid for six online personalities to come see their factories for themselves the headlines say it all influencers gas up she and after sketchy factory tour no slave labor here and how do you convince people your Sweatshop is cool pay an influencer to tour it so how did this PR campaign go so horribly wrong [Music] something to know about Xi'an is that it's very famous for its massive inventory huge turnover and dirt cheap prices and I'm talking like really cheap a couple of years ago one analytics firm pegged it as the biggest fast fashion retailer in the U.S bigger than h m bigger than Zara and according to Bloomberg its sales exploded from 10 billion dollars in 2020 to 100 billion last year but critics say there's a cost Sheehan's cheap clothes come with a human cost as workers race to produce the up to 1 000 new items that drop on qian's website every day if you're selling clothes at four pounds how physically can you be doing that without somebody somewhere along the line paying for that an investigation by Channel 4 in the UK last year revealed that employees usually worked seven days a week sometimes on 18 hour shifts there has been extensive reporting into allegations of labor law violations the company's outsized environmental impact she launches around three to four thousand new female apparel products every day so it is a very huge amount and a new U.S Congressional report suggests fast fashion companies based in China are complicit in ethnic cleansing making Goods with forced labor there have also been serious concerns about the actual clothing itself a CBC Marketplace investigation found exceedingly high levels of lead in Sheehan's clothing Health Canada issued a recall for a toddler trench coat with 20 times the amount of lead as to what's legally allowed in products sold in Canada [Music] get ready with me to go on a branch of wishing the most fascinating thing is that I've seen the exact process of she and clothing I've seen how it's designed I've seen How It's Made I've now I'm gonna see how it's packaged and shipped off I was really excited and impressed to see the working conditions and enter the influencers six of them all from the U.S flown in by the company to tour a Sheen Factory I expected this facility to be so filled with people just slaving away but I was actually pleasantly surprised that a lot of these things were robotic and honestly everybody was just working like normal like chill sitting down they weren't even sweating we were the ones sweating walking through the whole facility one influencer even called herself an investigative journalist and said she pressed she in on its labor practices I was able to interview a woman that worked in the fabric cutting department and you guys know me she's an investigative journalist so I asked her all of our questions and she answered them honestly and authentically but of course this flies in the face of years of reporting hidden camera investigation across some of the estimated 6 000 Sheehan factories worldwide what the influencers presented critics say was a sanitized version of what Sheehan actually is [Music] this is a PR stunt for Chien and Sheen has sent a handful of influencers to China and what can only be described as Chinese government funded propaganda these influencers were taken to what I assume is their newest Factory in China to Gaslight into thinking that they don't have Labor issues did you actually think they were going to take you to the factories with child labor did you actually think they were going to take you to the factory where they make four cents a garment did you actually think they were going to take you to the factories that would make them look bad as influencers started posting about their brand trip with Xi'an people were outraged calling them out for essentially spreading misinformation it is propaganda it absolutely is but organizations and companies have been dealing in propaganda since the formation of a company and so whether that was the printed press or television or radio advertising and propaganda is not new and and certainly it's just being used in new platform in a new way so now it's influencers and social media now after facing criticism one of the influencers doubled down I I've seen stuff with my own two eyes if you think it's propaganda that's cool only to then backtrack and apologize I should have done more research I'm you know sorry and sad that a lot of people that don't know me um you know are so so angry and upset now we should say we we did reach out to she and the company they sent us a statement which said they are quote committed to transparency and this trip reflects one way in which we are listening to feedback their position we opened our doors and the influencers got it right there's good reason to be skeptical of that of course and for now it is the influencers maybe more than the company itself who are just being raked over the coals for appearing to act as Sheehan's personal Army of PR crisis managers we know this story we know how it works we know how it goes and so there's enough education out there for this to go wrong thank you

Channel: CBC News

Views: 556,178

Keywords: TikTok, Instagram, Shein, Fast Fashion, Clothing, China, Brands, Influencers, Social Media, Economy, Brand Trip, Retailer, Trends, about that, andrew chang, cbc, cbc news, cbc explore, exploreapp

Id: dTmuHwK165k

Length: 6min 18sec (378 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 28 2023