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‘Lush’ launch controversial campaign

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carriageline

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It seems Lush stores across the UK have launched a new campaign, which is certainly controversial!!

It’s aimed at outing #spycops. Undercover police officers who have apparently been tasked with infiltrating families of known activists. Some falling in love, and creating families with them.



We seek to highlight this intrusive, abusive, political policing in the UK and pressure the government to make the public inquiry more effective at uncovering the truth into this human rights scandal.

We will be promoting this through our social channels, website, and shop windows, from 1st June till the evening of Sunday 17th June.

We are partnering with groups who are already active on this issue, in particular:

Police Spies Out Of Lives (PSOOL) & Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance (COPS).

Secret undercover policing units have been functioning in the UK since 1968. Their roles were to infiltrate political groups and collect 'intelligence' about planned demonstrations and the individuals involved. There is evidence that these units are still running and are now targeting, for example, anti-fracking activists.

Most of the time, we refer to the officers who worked for these units as the #spycops

Until 2010, the existence of these units was relatively unknown. Everything changed from the moment when Mark Kennedy was uncovered – he had lived amongst activists for seven years (and had long-term relationships with a number of women), using the name 'Mark Stone' – and the issue started receiving attention in the media.

Those who first suspected, and then confronted, Mark, found out that they weren't alone. Others came forward, with similar stories and experiences, and activists began putting together the pieces. Many women discovered that their previous partners who they'd fallen in love with, then been abandoned by, had in fact been undercover police officers sent to undermine the campaigns they were involved in.

The public were horrified to learn what these 'public servants' had been paid to do, and the level of personal intrusion suffered by their victims. Other grisly details began to emerge, for example the routine use of dead children's identities by these officers. We found out that #spycops had spied on grieving families, who were campaigning for justice following the (racist) murders of their loved ones. A police whistleblower, Peter Francis, came forward and revealed that he had been sent in to spy on the Stephen Lawrence family.

This shocking revelation was enough for former Home Secretary Theresa May to order a public inquiry which started in 2015. However the inquiry has been beset with issues. The first Chair had to stand down and the second Chair has been making the public inquiry progressively more secretive, and has been granting 'anonymity orders' to the police, undermining the very function of a public inquiry which is to get to the truth.

This Lush campaign will be asking the new Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, to prevent the public inquiry from collapsing. We are asking him to:

  • Release the cover names used by these officers
  • Publish the list of groups spied on
  • Give us our files
  • Appoint a panel

https://beta.lush.com/en/article/paid-to-lie-spy-cops-campaign-uk-only
 
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the sniper

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It seems Lush stores across the UK have launched a new campaign, which is certainly controversial!!

It’s aimed at outing #spycops.

To me it just looks like a rather cringeworthy marketing exercise that'll give some 'journalists' a little easy content for the weekend, get Lush some free publicity, while appealing to the 'right on' clientele they target, who are too daft to see this for what it is. Beyond that it'll be inconsequential and irrelevant to most people.
 

Royston Vasey

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Moral crusades never ever end well for companies, particularly when they're provocative and particularly when they're nothing to do with the business. Those at the top become blinded to how bad an idea it is. I must say the advanced paranoia in this one tops the lot. They may as well have referenced the Illuminati for the win :lol:
 

WelshBluebird

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They are right the topic needs to be tackled, but talk about going about something in the wrong way!
 

DarloRich

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We are always told that if we have done nothing wrong we have nothing to fear from the police. Why should they not be subject to the same scrutiny and challenge. After all if they have done nothing wrong they have nothing to fear.

The big problem seems to be that the campaign simply looks like an attack on the police generally.
 

the sniper

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The big problem seems to be that the campaign simply looks like an attack on the police generally.

Particularly when you see the shop front display they've produced, which turns an irrelevant 'campaign' into an incomprehensibly bad image for a mainstream audience.

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carriageline

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I read earlier they are under investigation by the Advertisting Standards regulator
 

the sniper

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Would this topic be under discussion on here if Lush hadn't launched this campaign? I doubt it...

People aren't really talking about undercover policing though. Any discussion I've seen is merely questioning and scrutinising the logic behind Lush's marketing efforts.
 

AlterEgo

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Would this topic be under discussion on here if Lush hadn't launched this campaign? I doubt it...

People on Twitter aren’t really talking about the ethical implications of undercover policing, oversight of operations or the lengthy inquiry.

They’re mostly confused at Lush. A few lefty loonies are using the campaign to bore people further by supporting Lush and claiming undercover policing is another example of how The System Oppresses Women. Load of old tosh.

I didn’t have much interest in the inquiry before and I support the police more now than I did before.
 

tony_mac

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A swing and a miss then, it seems.
It's difficult to understand how that wasn't completely predictable.

But I do think there is a lot of virtue signalling going on, you don't hear the undercover police themselves complaining about the campaign, do you?
I think all the complaining is just PC nonsense.
 

NSEFAN

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It's difficult to understand how that wasn't completely predictable.

But I do think there is a lot of virtue signalling going on, you don't hear the undercover police themselves complaining about the campaign, do you?
I think all the complaining is just PC nonsense.
PC Nonsense? Is that the name of the first officer they've outed? ;)
 
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