On Thursday 16 March, Emmaus France unveiled a hard-hitting communication campaign on its Instagram account: the infiltration of the online platform Vinted, one of the giants of second-hand goods. By pretending to put its items on sale, the association actually encouraged users to prefer donations to sales. The labels on its products read: “This garment is not for sale on Vinted. It is there to raise awareness and remind us that giving to Emmaus means giving ourselves the power to act. For solidarity. For the environment.
Through its slogan “If you don’t wear it, give it away” – a nod to the Vinted slogan “If you don’t wear it anymore, sell it” – Emmaus wants to remind people that there are other alternatives to selling clothes. Because the association lives off these donations and collections, it explains that “thanks to its social and solidarity-based model, more than 70,000 people are taken in, housed, helped or supported towards employment every year”. The association hopes that these words will raise awareness and encourage consumers to donate the clothes they leave in their wardrobes.
In a Twitch live broadcast on Backseat, a political talk show hosted by Jean Massiet, Emmaus France’s deputy director general, Valérie Fayard, explained that the association “is not trying to make people feel guilty at all”.
This is not the first time that Emmaus has pointed the finger at the second-hand giants. In October 2022, it accused several companies including Vinted of unfair competition.
Founded by Abbé Pierre in 1949, Emmaus is a French non-profit organization dedicated to the recovery and sale of clothing and accessories. Every year, it helps to reintegrate thousands of people in precarious situations into the workforce. The association has more than 350 solidarity shops throughout France.
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