Beware the wristband con - The Guardian

Beware The Wristband Con

Hugh Muir

Saturday 11 June 2005 09.01 BST

Last modified on Monday 13 June 2005 09.01 BST

Trading standards officers have warned that the wristbands that have come to define the compassion of a generation are increasingly being targeted by con men.

The Trading Standards Institute spoke out after numerous reports of counterfeiters profiteering from the fundraising initiative. More than 23m wristbands have been sold to charity supporters and high profile figures such as Tony Blair.

But officials say some sellers are overcharging for wristbands that should sell for between 70p and £1. West Yorkshire trading standards officers recently found traders in Leeds selling fake Livestrong wristbands - which should benefit cancer research - for between £1 and £2. There have also been reports of counterfeit Livestrong wristbands being sold in Glasgow.

Investigations by journalists have discovered examples of wristbands being sold by traders who have no intention of making a contribution to the charities concerned.

Bryan Lewin, the Trading Standards Institute's lead officer for counterfeiting, said: "It is despicable that they are taking away money from such worthy causes and conning the consumer to make money, and sometimes committing criminal offences."

Mr Lewin urged people to buy wristbands from official outlets such as registered charity websites, well-known high street retailers and charity shops.

Marcus O'Shea, head of fundraising for Breast Cancer Care, called for the charities themselves to take tough action against the profiteers.

"If people were making fake Nike trainers they'd have legal teams on it in seconds," he said. "Charities and their umbrella bodies need to step in and really hammer down on the counterfeiters and profiteering."

He added that his charity was working with the Charities Commission and the Institute of Fundraising to find a solution.

The worldwide appeal for charity wristbands started with the launch of the yellow Livestrong bracelet in aid of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, set up by the six times Tour de France winner to highlight his crusade against cancer. More than 20m of those have been sold.

Since then, photographs of sporting and music celebrities wearing wristbands have helped them become popular fashion accessories, particularly among the young.

The 3 million white Make Poverty History wristbands sold so far have made the initiative even more popular. In March, Mr Blair was pictured wearing one of the wristbands during a visit to a North London hospital.

Charities such as Cafod, Oxfam and Christian Aid benefit from the proceeds.

They have, however, been required to source the items carefully. Last month it emerged that thousands of wristbands had been made in conditions that breach international ethical standards and the charities were forced to demand improvements.

Response

I am really grateful that this article was suggested to me after I had done my presentation. Although it is not entirely relevant as this is about a product being sold with money going to the charity which would then use it for positive change rather than a product just being sold to encourage positive changes. Anyway, the fact that this article uses words such as 'counterfeit', 'criminal offences' and 'con men' tell us that this is a serious subject and a clear wrongdoing. What I find interesting is that because this involves exchanges of money and misconduct when letting the consumer know how much will go to charity, it is considered a crime. However, if the product didn't claim that any of the proceeds would actually be sent to a charity and that it was purely to inform people and raise awareness of an issue, would the backlash be the same when companies profit from it?

The first line of the article states that these wristbands 'define the compassion of a generation' which suggests to me that people feel they have to buy products to show that they care. This is all just part of the consumerist society that we are currently living in, you can't just believe something, you have to prove that you do buy buying. Celebrity culture has raised the profile of these products and they are considered to be 'fashion accessories' which drives the focus away from the cause and more towards the value of the product itself. The article specifies that this occurs 'particularly among the young' which suggests that this change is happening over time and companies selling these products are targeting new generations who are potentially naive to what they are actually being sold.