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Broken Promises - `Aid Not Trade, ' a Play on the Body Shop `Trade Not Aid' Slogan. "Body Shop Gets the Aid in the Form of Native Images, " Says Dr. Terence Turner. "In Return, Natives Get Almost No Trade".

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Broken Promises - `Aid Not Trade, ' a Play on the Body Shop `Trade Not Aid' Slogan. "Body Shop Gets the Aid in the Form of Native Images, " Says Dr. Terence Turner. "In Return, Natives Get Almost No Trade".
Broken promises

Thanks in great part to its "green" image British company Body Shop has prospered in the 80s. In the 90s the firm tried to increase its world visibility linking its image to Brazil 's rainforest and approaching the Brazilian Kayapo Indians with a program they called `Trade Not Aid. ' The association generated a barrage of free and laudatory media stories about the activities of Body Shop. More recently however this image has been bruised. Is the Body Shop social conscience just a sham?

Saulo Petean*

Body Shop 's much vaunted `Trade Not Aid ' policy with indigenous peoples is running into serious problems in the Amazon where it sources Brazil nut oil for one of its best-selling beauty products.

Since 1991, Body Shop has been buying oil processed by the Mebengokre Indians, also called the Kayapo. Brazil nut oil makes up about one and half percent of its rainforest hair conditioner. The `Trade Not Aid ' project has long been the centerpiece of Body Shop 's attempts to market itself as a `socially responsible ' business. But the relationship, rocky for years, has become a sore point for the Indians.

The problems hit the international press in March when the Amazon Chief featured in Body Shop promotions sued the company for failing to deliver on its commitment to pay for using Indian images in marketing efforts. The picture of Chief Pykati-re, in traditional feathered headdress making a `thumbs up ' gesture, has been used in posters and leaflets, and decorates the Body Shop factory in England. It has also adorned the walls at more than 1400 Body Shops around the world. The chief 's lawyer, Hildebrando Pontes Neto, is a specialist on image rights.

Pykati-re is an elder of Pukanu village, which along with Aukre village in remote northern Brazil, processes the oil. His image was featured in an American Express advertisement alongside Body Shop founder Anita Roddick. It was also used in publicity to raise funds in Europe to help the Kayapo.


Links: between the Body Shop and the Kayapo Indians" written by two Brazilian anthropologists, Iara Ferraz and Rubem Almeida, and English sociologist Pat Stocker, substantiate the history of the broken promises between Body Shop and the Mebengokre. Currently Saulo works as an independent consultant researching ethical market for Indian communities. He can be reached by E-mail at: saulopet@gmail.com This article "Broken Promises" originally appeared as a cover history of the Los Angeles-based magazine "Brazzil" on December 16th, by the Brazilian publisher Rodney Mello, at http://www.brazzil.com/p16dec96.htm.
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