Peeters & Pichal is a consumer show on Radio 1. They wanted to raise awareness of the miserable working conditions in the clothing industry.

In 1 week’s time we had to engage people to respond with a debate, forcing the industry to act.The question we asked was: “Would people still buy a cheap t-shirt if they knew how it was made?”We opened a real shop to test if people would still buy a cheap t-shirt if they knew how it was made, by confronting them with what they usually don’t see. This turned out to be quite an eye-opener.

Peeters & Pichal created their own clothing brand P&PAnd we opened a shop in one of Europe’s fashion capitals: Antwerp.The shop looked pretty normal. But when you entered the shop you would see the unacceptable rules, discover the young underpaid girls and meet the awful boss running the shop.The shop was crammed with cameras capturing the reactions that were later used in a TV commercial.

Besides the shop and the TV commercial there were also fake recruitment ads and radio commercials within the same concept.

This media mix translated in great results.People now know that when you buy a cheap t-shirt, somebody else is paying the price.The visitors were all willing to pay extra for better working conditions.

The industry responded to the campaign via a representative of fashion stores H&M, Zara and C&A stating on Radio 1 that they would not allow these poor working conditions anymore. And Karel de Gucht (European Commissioner for Trade) promised on Radio 1 that they would react.