Video of ad campaign against fast fashion falsely shared as protest against Zara

Context

Clothing retailer Zara has faced backlash over its recent social media marketing campaign promoting a new jacket collection. Social media users alleged that some of the images from the series, which appeared to show a body wrapped in a white sheet and a cardboard cutout resembling the map of Palestine, mocked the deaths of Palestinians amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and called for a boycott of the company.

BBC News reported that the Advertising Standards Authority received 50 complaints about the campaign, following which the brand pulled back some of the images and issued an apology expressing its regret over a misunderstanding of the campaign.

What is the claim? 

A video circulating on social media shows piles of clothes strewn around in Times Square, New York. A Zara store is visible, along with billboards showing other fashion brands including Uniqlo, H&M, and Gap. A post on X (archived here) shared the video with the caption, “After Zara made a disrespectful ad about the Gaza conflict, Americans are throwing away all their Zara clothes in front of the company. Zionism is the new WOKE,” and has garnered over 1.1 million views. The video is also being shared across Facebook (archived here, here, and here) with a similar narrative.

Screenshot of social posts claiming that the video shows clothes thrown in front of a Zara store in New York as a sign of protest against its recent ad campaign. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the video is part of an advertising campaign created by Vestiaire Collective, a Paris-based second-hand luxury fashion resale platform, against fast fashion and textile waste.

What did we find?

A reverse image search of keyframes from the viral clip led us to the same video shared on TikTok by the official account of Vestiaire Collective on November 16, 2023. The caption reads, “With 92 million tons of textiles sent to landfill every year, now's the time to act. That's why, from today, we're banning another 30 fast fashion brands from Vestiaire Collective, including Zara, H&M, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, Mango, Urban Outfitters, and Uniqlo. Ready to join the movement? #thinkfirstbuysecond.” Fast fashion is a term for the fast-paced manufacturing, wearing, and discarding of clothes, which results in textile waste. 

The firm has also uploaded a similar video of the campaign on its official YouTube channel titled “Think First, Buy Second” on the same date. The video description states, “Join the circular movement and help us end fast fashion waste.

The original video posted to Vestiaire's YouTube channel on November 16, 2023. (Source: Vestiare/YouTube)

Vestiaire’s branding is visible on a billboard in the viral clip that reads, “What if the fast fashion waste…. (next billboard) .. was on your doorstep. Vestiaire Collective.”

Screenshot of the Vestiaire Collective billboard seen in the viral video. (Source: X/Screenshot)

Vestiare's Chief Impact Officer Dounia Wone, released a statement saying, “Fast fashion brands contribute to excessive production and consumption, resulting in devastating social and environmental consequences in the Global South. It is our duty to act and lead the way for other industry players to join us in this movement, and together, we can have an impact,” Vogue Business reports.

Zara’s jacket collection and the advertisement were made public on December 8, 2023, while Vestiaire Collective’s campaign was made public days before, on November 16, 2023. It is unrelated to Zara and its recent controversial ad campaign. 

Logically Facts also contacted Vestiaire Collective, who confirmed that "Our Fast Fashion Ban campaign was launched on November 16th to encourage consumers to be more thoughtful about their purchases, to "Think First, Buy Second", which is the tagline. The campaign, now in its second year, is part of our mission to transform the fashion industry for a more sustainable future. This video was created using AI."

The verdict
A video of an ad campaign by Vestiaire Collective is falsely being shared as a protest against Zara after its recent ad campaign triggered outrage. The video is unrelated to the current Israel-Hamas conflict. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.