Workers for children's charity Unicef say celebrity campaigns and fashion company deals are hurting its image

The new vogue among the biggest catwalk labels is to adopt a charity to tell the world you have a heart. Last week Gucci joined Prada, Armani and Jean Paul Gaultier to become the latest label to embrace philanthropy by launching an exclusive Christmas gift collection in conjunction with Unicef, the United Nations children's fund.

But the motivation for alliances between high fashion and charity is being increasingly questioned by international pressure groups involved in the daily fight against sweatshops and, perhaps most embarrassingly for the UN, by their own front-line officers.

Unicef staff in Pakistan and India have focused their fury on the alleged working practices of the French conglomerate PPR (formerly Pinault-Printemps-Redoute), which owns Gucci and whose Asian suppliers have, over the past decade, been embroiled in damning links to sweatshops in Mumbai and Karachi.

'The association with Gucci has been the final straw for field officers,' one long-term Unicef worker in Pakistan said last week. 'The feeling, and it is a unanimous sentiment, is that we are selling the Unicef name down the river. The need for fund-raising is paramount, granted, but not at the cost of integrity.'

'Even looking at the alliance - Gucci and Unicef - it's ludicrous. Gucci's most loyal customers would think nothing of spending $100,000 a season on couture. Do you know how many lives that would save? It just doesn't sit well.'

 

 

Are big corporations and celebrities more interested in their image being seen as a caring one or are they really trying to help?

 

 

Are big corporations and celebrities more interested in their image being seen as a caring one or are they really trying to help?

 

The answer to the question is 'yes'.... These bloody parasites could do a lot more than just bang on about it, they could actually put their sodding money where their collective big gobs are and actually be a hell of a lot more proactive....

 

It's just laughable for the fashion industry to talk about 'charidee' while they are running sweatshops in the third world....

 

The answer to the question is 'yes'.... These bloody parasites could do a lot more than just bang on about it, they could actually put their sodding money where their collective big gobs are and actually be a hell of a lot more proactive....

 

It's just laughable for the fashion industry to talk about 'charidee' while they are running sweatshops in the third world....

 

 

agreed

seems a little hypocritical of UNICEF .... as it delivers me my Robbie Williams Christmas Cards :unsure: