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 Radiohead have teamed up with MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) to produce a music video to raise awareness of child labour and human trafficking.  The  song ‘All I Need’ from the ‘In Rainbows‘ album is used as a backing track on a video featuring two stories, shown simultaneously; one of a boy from the West and one of a boy in a sweatshop in the Asia. In the video the western boy buys shoes which come from the sweatshop.

The video presents an extremely powerful message, contrasting the lives of two children so closely.  The music adds beautifully to the sentiment and makes the video  compelling and effective.

The reach of the video is anticipated to be very wide; bloggers have been reporting that the video will be seen by an estimated 560 million households worldwide.

Explaining his involvement in the project, Thom Yorke, the lead singer of Radiohead, has been quoted as saying “I think it’s important for everyone in the West or on the high street to understand the consequences of our economic activity. You must be aware of the level of exploitation that’s going on,” Yorke said. “It’s part of our Western life, and one we should accept responsibility for. There’s no such thing as a free lunch or a free ticket to another country.”

Radiohead are planning to follow up on the video by asking activists campaigning on human trafficking to distribute information on their upcoming tour.

The video can be seen here

Musicians have a long, and sometimes controversial, tradition of supporting development agendas; just think of Bob Geldof and Live Aid or Bono’s celebrity endorsed ONE Campaign  ‘the campaign to Make Poverty History’.  Radiohead’s efforts will undoubtedly be compared to the lead singer of Coldplay, Chris Martin’s, very public support of Oxfam’s ‘Make Trade Fair’ campaign during which he focused on revising the inequitable trade rules between developed and developing countries. By contrast, Radiohead’s approach addresses a difficult subject, seemingly raising more difficult questions about Western consumers’ complicity in the exploitation of workers.

We are pleased that such inspirational and influential artists as Radiohead have chosen to highlight these issues. They have the ability to frame them in new and powerful ways, which can only help in spreading the message to new audiences.