Dumb Animals

David Bailey & Greenpeace

1985

Fashion photographer David Bailey turned his hand to animal rights with this anti-fur in fashion advertisement, in collaboration with Greenpeace. It starts as a typical fashion show withe a focus on fur clothing. The audience members are ore grotesque versions of the characters usually seen at a fashion show, with excessive make up and leering gestures. The crowd build up a pleasured frenzy, watching the models, until they begin to be splashed by blood coming from the fur items. The audience are shocked and disgusted. The advert points to the blind celebration for fashion for fashion's sake without thought to the violence used to get the material (fur) used. This realisation comes to a bloody halt when the violence meets the celebration and the horror story behind the fashion fetish touches the audience viscerally.

Website: https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/