Lush under fire for controversial SpyCops campaign

Lush has been criticised for a three-week initiative that highlights a “small and secretive subset of undercover policing that undermines and threatens the very idea of democracy”. 

This, the retailer claims, went “well beyond the boundaries of acceptable police tactics” and is now the subject of an ongoing public inquiry, which was instigated by Theresa May during her time as Home Secretary. “This public inquiry needs help from the public to keep it on track and ensure that this one opportunity for full honesty and disclosure is not lost or squandered.  All citizens should be concerned when human rights are abandoned by those in power.”

Lush is promoting the campaign, called SpyCops, on social media and in-store. Its store windows feature police tape and the claim that, “Police have crossed the line." An image of a man, one half of which features a police helmet, the other half no helmet, has the tagline "paid to lie". 

There has been a negative reaction by the mainstream media and on social media, with people labelling the initiative “shockingly ill-informed” and "misguided at best, nasty at worst" and posting images and videos of themselves throwing away Lush products. More than 30 complaints have been submitted to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), although no action will be taken as the campaign is outside its remit.

The retailer also has its fair share of supporters, however. The comedian, Mark Thomas, tweeted, ‘Small point in Lush story: the company registered in UK and pay tax in UK contributing to police budget, in marked contrast to the newspapers attacking Lush who are registered offshore and pay f**k all tax and thus f**k all to police budget’.

Whilst The Guardian journalist Owen Jones commented: ‘I've interviewed women who had relationships with undercover officers, who fell in love with men faking their identities to spy on them and their fellow activists. It is a horrific scandal and @LushLtd are courageous in drawing attention to it.’

Lush, meanwhile, has pulled the campaign from some stores due to "intimidation" of its staff by ex-police officers. "Whilst this and unhelpful tweets from those in high office are ongoing, not all of our shops feel able today to have the campaign window in their shops. However, the campaign is still running for three weeks and we will be constantly weighing up what to do about the situation,” it says.

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