Ten years ago, Catherine Scott from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design conducted a survey when she prepared her thesis Addressing ethical awareness: developing a design strategy for the Fairtrade Foundation (2000)[1], at the time when the concept of shopping Fairtrade was still fairly unknown. Scott’s idea was to propose a new visual scheme so that Fairtrade could be brought across to the consumers more effectively. Interestingly, according to her survey, consumers did not want to see images of producers on the packages of tea or coffee because they did not want to be reminded of someone’s misery when they enjoy their beverage. From this survey, Catherine gathered that the new visual scheme for Fairtrade should be more text-based, with limited imagery.
Within the last decade the Fairtrade labelling system has gained tremendous success. According to the Foundation’s 2008/2009 Annual Review, 7 out of 10 people in the UK recognise the FAIRTRADE Mark and over £700m was spent on Fairtrade certified products in 2008, a rise of over 40% since 2007. There are 489 Fairtrade Towns across the country. “So many brands will be jealous of that percentage of recognition”, remarked Alan Duncan MP. Together with the expansion of the brand, Fairtrade’s stories and visual language are also saturating all our possible spaces, both public (supermarkets, cafés, offices) and private (homes); from physical (packaging, literature, bags) to sensual (inhalable fruits)[2] to mental (Fairtrade taught at school, Fairtrade prayers used in churches). No space unbranded, as Naomi Klein noted in her book No Logo (2000).
(Above all) from Fairtrade Foundation 2008/2009 Annual Review
At a time when we hardly could finish our grocery shopping without running into pictures of people from some developing countries, it is worthy to reassess what lies behind these images. Obviously Fairtrade’s design strategy has taken up a path completely different from what Scott has proposed 10 years ago. One point we need to note is that, from Scott’s survey, people stated that they did not want to be reminded of someone’s misery, and this is exactly what Fairtrade is not showing us now. Fairtrade’s producers are not miserable, they are smiling.
Their stories tell us that with Fairtrade their lives have become much better. This seemingly happy and contented atmosphere appears to be the crucial element that turns something unbearable to bearable, even appreciable. As a result, the products such images endorse are now sellable, consumable.
There is a major problem with the concept of poverty reduction. The concept of poverty reduction assumes that a certain level of poverty is tolerable. And therefore if you can reduce it to that level, then people are going to be comfortable with poverty.
Research questions
Are these people really so happily being farmers, working hard to produce what we enjoy? Do these images instil racial stereotype?
Daniel Jaffee suggests that having producers on the package somehow simulates the old face-to-face relationship between sellers and buyers [3]. At first thought it seems logical enough. However, is it really as innocent as it sounds? First, in real face-to-face transactions, those who sell have a chance to react to us. A face on the product does not enjoy the same right. The printed smile is not a reflection of their conditions but a pose. A pose requested with a purpose. What can be the purpose? To reassure, to promote, to sell.
Second, how are these people being positioned? Are we being stimulated to imagine them in a certain situation? Are we getting used to them being in a particular role, at a particular level of the social or global ladder?
I am inclined to think that branding is not always a one-way injection of values.
A value promoted can have its root in the mentality of a certain group of people. Perhaps we could understand brand not only as infiltration but also reflection.
Can I, through Fairtrade’s narratives, reflect on a certain aspect of the perceptions of a society?
To sum up, my research questions are:
Fairtrade and the smiling poor, reality or interpretation? How are the poor interpreted? How are the rich? Can I provoke questions with regard to this interpretation and our mindset?
Structure of this report
Chapter 1 investigates Fairtrade as a labelling system, with an intention to get closer to how it runs in real, the difficulties faced by the participating producers and more importantly, the difference in attitude the operating organisations employs when dealing with the growers or the business partners from the developed countries.
Chapter 2 attempts to visit a deeper mentality of this movement through researching into its visual language – how is it structured? can we trace the root behind such structuring?
Chapter 3 to 5 records my interviews with the Fairtrade Foundation in the UK; WORLDwrite, an educational charity based in London who produced a short documentary about Fairtrade a couple of years ago; and Mr De Roy Kwesi Andrew from Ghana, whose opinions about the movement and its interpretation of his people may help us to get out of the Western thinking framework and review the meaning of development and the Fairtrader-Producer relationship.
Chapter 6 reports on my participation in this year’s Fairtrade Supporter Conference, a first-hand experience with the movement here in the UK.
Chapter 7 concludes on my research, revisits the fundamentally unjust world power-economic system, the top-down mindset embedded in a lot of ethical programmes, including Fair Trade and finally, a glimpse into what real development should be.