top of page

Brands Behaving Badly

Selfie.jpg
thief.jpg

How it started...

 

One day I just got fed up.

 

Fed up with brands reaching out to me asking to "collaborate" only to find that they wanted to steal my labor and access to my audience to advance their business.

 

And we're not just talking about small brands. Multibillion-dollar businesses are engaging in this practice. And it's not OK.

 

Maybe it's greed. Perhaps ignorance.

 

Whatever the reason, the practice is unethical and disproportionately affects women and BIPOC.

 

So I decided to speak up. I began naming and tagging brands in my Instagram stories that had reached out to me asking me to work for toothpaste, donuts, tee shirts, etc.

 

Soon my DMs were flooded with creators experiencing the same.

 

Since that first day, so many people have been empowered to say no, speak up for themselves, and collect the checks they've earned for the work they do.


NY Times, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, HashtagPaid, Carusele, and others have covered this advocacy work. And I hope more publications will do the same. 

 

Because brands haven't stopped.

 

And until there is enough public pressure or legal ramifications for requesting this sort of unpaid labor, I will dedicate time to individually hold brands accountable and request change.

This work is being documented below, on @brands_behaving_badly and YouTube.

HAS A BRAND ASKED YOU TO WORK FOR FREE?

"BAD BRANDS"

These brands have been

identified as asking

creators to work in 

exchange for product.

Details of those actions are

documented in the interactive

grid below.

01

REFUSED TO CHANGE AFTER CONVERSATION

Amazing Grass
Backed By Nature
Leonisa
MaryRuth's Organics
(blocked @itskimberlyrenee for starting conversation)
Revive Superfoods (lied about making changes)
RIND Snacks
That Sounds Gay
Twrl M!lk Tea

03

HAD CONVERSATION BUT ACTIONS THEREAFTER UNCERTAIN

Altar’d State / A’Beautiful Soul

A-Sha Dry Noodle
BraveRobot

Curls
Dahlicious Yogurt 
Elvie
From You Flowers
OGX Beauty
Palm (Agency)

Scentbird Perfumes

02

UNFAIR PRACTICES DOCUMENTED, BUT NO CONVERSATION HAS BEEN HAD

108 Health & Beauty

310 Nutrition
Ancient Harvest
Angelic Bakehouse
Angry Orange

Big Mountain Foods

Brytn Smile
Clean Beauty Collective
Coconut Bowls
Cohley Creators
Crispy Green
Crocs
Del Taco

Dossier 
Dyson
eatmeguiltfree
Fabletics
Femme Detox
Forij
Freshly
Gaia Herbs
Google
JC Penney
Joi
Lamps Plus
Lean Cuisine

Lucky Foods
Malaysian Palm Oil Council
McDonalds
Meatless Farms
Parks Project
Pink Lily
Sprouts
T3 Micro
The Halal Guys
The Honest Kitchen
Wet N Wild Cosmetics

bottom of page