LUSH & “the right side of History”

[NitroNine]

LUSH’s Dublin branch (on Henry Street) have decided to effectively announce their support for Hamas despite it being a proscribed organisation in the EU, UK & US. Jaysus.

To just run through some of their greatest hits as discussed on MN:
• in 2012 they ran a hugely sexualised campaign to oppose animal testing
• they foist a guide on “How To Be A Trans Ally” on customers (2018)
• donations from November 2019‘s Charity Pots go to Trans Media Watch (controlling the media narrative doesn’t come cheap)
• the Edinburgh branch announce they wouldn’t serve anyone in a “woman: adult human female” t-shirt (2020)
• facilitating providing binders to children without the knowledge of parents in 2021
• refusing funding to lesbian groups (2021)
• the 2022 “trans kids belong” campaign

Even living in London & despairing utterly of the Met Police as I do I still think their 2018 Spy Cops campaign was cynical, manipulative, & just a marginally more sophisticated way to say “ACAB” rather than a genuine attempt to address the incredibly serious issues that had been uncovered.

”The right side of history” indeed 🤨

Shame on them, for this latest stunt and for the long list of previous stunts that you have shared

I don't think supporting a boycott of Israel amounts to supporting Hamas OP. I think Lush are idiots but nowhere in that report is there any suggestion that they support Hamas, only that they support a boycott of Israel and that they say they support both the Palestinian people and ordinary Israeli people.
I'm not sure this is helpful.

Honestly, Lush is a brand I am only too happy to boycott these days.

The amount of endocrine disrupting fragrances and harsh surfactants in their products make them a poor choice for anyone looking to use gentler beauty products, they switch main ingredients in tried and tested products at the drop of a hat, and the small pot of moisturiser which used to be a special treat for me at £11 less than 10 years ago now costs a whopping £26.

I'm not a fool, so you'll have to work harder than that to get me to part with my cash.

So they would boycott Israel but Iran is ok?
From their website:

"We also have joint ventures or license agreements in over 20 other countries including: Switzerland, Chile, South Korea, Ukraine, Croatia, Dubai, Singapore, Mexico, Lebanon, South Africa, Greece and Thailand. Future expansion plans are focusing on Vietnam, South America, Indonesia, Pakistan and Iran."

Colour me unsurprised. Lush are masters of the politically and morally dubious window display. This shit goes back 10-15 years.

Lush are a peculiar organisation. They’re huge but run themselves like a small scale boutique business. The head honchos style themselves as airy hippy types and they seem to attract a lot of extreme lefties, staff and customers alike.

They have no HR department. Bullying is rife.

This blog blew the whistle on a lot of it:
https://mitheringsfrommorningside.wordpress.com/category/the-smell-of-bullshit/

Whilst boycotting Israel is not the same as supporting Hamas the timing of the poster going up makes it fairly obvious what their intentions are

The Iranian regime trans’s the gay away.

That is arguably consistent with the causes Lush endorses.

There is a huge difference between boycotting Israel and supporting Hamas.

They're awful and so are the sign amd the sentiment. I almost wish I shopped there regularly and generously so I could boycott them (again). As it is, I find their products stinky and their shop staff annoying as hell.

I'd be curious to know whether that has head office sign-off. My guess is not and it will be hastily removed.

I'd naively assumed this kind of thing was limited to the UK so I'm doubly disappointed to see it elsewhere.

True.

And Lush seem to abuse women at the drop of a hat, if I’m right about them being the ones who had a naked woman being force fed & another one hung on hooks in their windows- not to mention the time when customers were allowed to kiss women staff for some reason. If anyone confirms that this wasn’t them I’ll get this post deleted.

'They have no HR department'

That's appalling

Yes, I would like to be able to boycott them again but sadly I can't.

The last time I went into Lush thinking that maybe I would buy some of that moisturiser I used to use, I was like, "Pooh, stinky, I can barely breathe, right, where's the moisturiser? There it... 32 EUROS????? Fuuuuuuuuuck that OK byebye!" and made a swift U-turn straight out of the shop.

Yup

You are correct about all of these

They tortured and force fed a woman to protest animal testing

They hung a woman from hooks in the window to protest catching sharks for their fins

And they had their female staff in a store put on tshirts and be kissed by shoppers for World kissing day. Some of fhe female staff said they ended up with drunken men groping them and felt they couldn't stop or complain

Now whilst I also support things like banning animal testing for cosmetics, it's key in all of these that they abuse women to get their point across. Never men, which would have been just as powerful to get the message across.

For a company whose main target audience is women they really don't give a shit about us.

Thanks @Insommmmnia. I bet they were all fairly young, attractive women too.

If Lush really thought these displays were important & would make a difference, their directors / board members should be the ones in the windows. Of both sexes.

I used to spend £100s each year in lush. I bought all my toiletries from them. I really bought into the idea that they were this amazing fairtrade, environmentally conscious company. And then I found that they are far from the image they want to portray.

I'm not sure that boycotting Israel is the same as supporting Hamas but the timing is very telling. The whole situation is so fresh and emotive and I've been shocked reading threads on here at just how many people are unable to separate the regimes from the citizens. I can't imagine how it must feel to be Jewish and seeing this type of crap in shop windows. Especially when it means nothing to this shitshow company who jump on any bandwagon.

I will not be taking political or social instructions from any commercial company.

Let alone one that produces stuff I don’t want anywhere my body, especially my nose.

Yeah I prefer to buy my shampoo without a side helping of politics tbh.

Lush are so full of shit, I wish their veganese conditioner wasn't so good. I do avoid them after their hypocrisy over plane stupid. Dubai and Qatar have at least one in every mall and they air freight it all out here from the poole factory. Most of the ingredients are also sourced and imported from China so they go from China to poole to Qatar and loads of other places. However, this is the first time I have agreed with them and if they are allowed to fund terrorists storming airside security, they are allowed to support either side of a war.

I get most of my toiletries from a small mother-daughter-run business in Wales, https://www.wild-sage.co.uk/. Gorgeous stuff that smells really lovely - and all natural!

This

You missed out the support for Mermaids (via the Charity Pots and also a Mermaids bath bomb IIRC), a collaboration with Morgane Oger in Canada (a trans activist who successfully campaigned for the defunding of Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter for being the only remaining such centre in the area providing female-only services, even though there are multiple centres open to all, and I believe also one that is trans-only!), and the stunt where they got their staff to go naked except for an apron, to advertise their 'naked' (less packaged) range.

Yes, this post is mistitled and misleading.

I beg your pardon, it's not the title but the text in the OP that is misleading.

What total bullshit.

To post a boycott of Israel days after a barbaric terrosist attack on the Jewish people, is evidently a signal that they are siding with the terrorists.

I refuse to believe anyone is stupid enough to not realise what the timing of this sign represents.
The faux naivete of 'oh this little sign I just put up, nothing to do with the 1200 people just murdered in their homes. Why would you think that?'
It's pathetic and sickening.

It's only women being raped, paraded, kept hostage, children murdered, chiledren taken as hosatges after murderering thier parents, babies beheaded, threats to broadcast live torture and beheadings, why would anyone mind my little sign about boycotting the victims.

I am seething and reeling at the refusal to name evil, and the sly support for it from things like this from Lush.
Sickened.