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The BBC this week launched a new reality TV programme on its digital channel BBC 3. The programme, Blood, Sweat and T-shirts, is unlike other reality TV shows however - not only is it reality TV with a reasonable sound-track (boasting the likes of Muse and the Hives), this is reality TV with a conscience. Blood, Sweat and T-shirts takes 6 fashion conscious twenty-somethings away from their creature comforts and over to India to experience the life-style and working conditions of the people who make their clothes. The programme aims to challenge their blasé attitude to the social cost of cheap fashion, and it does exactly that. One girl, who at the start of the show claimed that, “it doesn’t matter to me if my clothes were made by a 3 year old or a 50 year old”, is the first to crack and has to leave her workstation, in one of India’s better factories, because she finds the working conditions so oppressive. The others similarly struggle to cope with the tough working conditions, and the viewer is left with the strong impression that life in the garment industry in India is far from peachy.Although the programme tends more towards reality TV than social conscience, it still has an important message to convey - that these working conditions are real and that there is scope for vast improvements.

For those who want to catch a glimpse of the programme, the BBC has posted some interesting clips on You Tube:

• Richard discusses wages and the barriers to education with a factory worker.
• Georgina discusses the conditions for migrant workers with a factory manager.

It is testament to the growing interest in ethical trade that the programme has been made at all, but it is far from the only ethical trade project in media at the moment. Alexa Chung is planning a similar experiment in her own sweat shop in Covent Garden, while the BBC has recently launched a website about ethical trade in the fashion industry. This new interest in ethical trade, and the BBC TV programme in particular, has created quite a stir in the blogosphere and have been the subject of several blogs.

New interest in ethical trade is always warmly received, and if media projects such as these can help change consumer attitudes to working conditions abroad, then companies will feel even more pressure to control standards in their supply chains.