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The eagerly awaited  third episode of BBC3′s Blood, Sweat, and T-Shirts aired last night yet disappointingly, the focus of the show was on a blocked toilet and group in-fighting when the six British ‘workers’ were transported to pick cotton in rural India. In our opinion, the 3^rd episode focussed too heavily on this at the expense of exposing the realities faced by Indian cotton workers. Other bloggers agreed;  LadyJulianne states: “What is surprising is how ignorant, rude, and generally useless the group of young adults from Britain are.”In our opinion, the theme of Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts is superior to many other reality TV programmes popping up on television lately, so perhaps we need to move beyond the critical here and commend BBC3 for producing the show and helping create and raise interest in ethical trade. 

The plight of Indian garment workers is at least being communicated, and maybe this is an effective way to capture the attention of younger generations who are accustomed to the benefits and not the repercussions of fast fashion.

The quest for ‘ethical trade’ raises some difficult issues to swallow and any creativity in communicating  the challenges of upholding labour standards should therefore be central to how the issues are presented. Radiohead’s new All I Need music video about human trafficking is a great example. It was made in partnership with MTV’s campaign against human trafficking and communicates a difficult subject in a comfortable arena. In Impactt’s opinion, media projects play an important role to changing consumer attitudes and while current projects such as Blood, Sweat, and T-shirts may not be perfect, it is progress. 

If you missed last night’s episode, you can watch it here: BBC3

Or visit the show’s official site to learn more about it.