Anonymous has kicked off a cyber campaign against French fashion house Louis Vuitton.
Dubbed Operation Skankbag, the latest initiative by the cyber activist group was launched in response to a Louis Vuitton lawsuit against Danish artist Nadia Plesner.
“As you are well aware, corporations are increasingly infringing upon our right to free speech. A recent example is that of Plesner,” explained an Anonymous poster circulating on the ‘Net.
“To raise awareness of atrocities in Darfur and criticize the materialism inherent in popular culture, Nadia made an image of an African child carrying a Chihuahua and a handbag. [But] what happened next defies the imagination.”
Indeed, Louis Vuitton decided the bag resembled one designed by the fashion house.
Despite its obvious lack of a logo, Vuitton sued Nadia, who is adamantly refusing to remove the image from either her products or website. As expected, Vuitton continues to demand hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation from the struggling artist.
“Of course, Nadia makes no money from the art, as all money goes to charities for Darfur. This case illustrates how corporations can effectively end our free speech the moment we say something that conflicts with their own agenda, like the anti-materialist message of Nadia’s ‘simple living’ campaign,” the poster continued.
“Therefore, it is time we retaliate. Now, a simple way would be to stop buying these handbags. There’s one problem, though: as angry young males, we’re not exactly part of the demographics Vuitton is targeting. However, there is a solution to this problem. We will have to destroy the image of Louis Vuitton [in the context of] Operation Skankbag.”
According to Anonymous, the campaign’s objective is to cause “financial damage” to Vuitton.
“We will use any non-physically violent method available to us to cause financial damage to Vuitton. Method one was explained on Reddit. It involves buying replica Vuitton handbags and giving them away to homeless people. If your sister has an old bag, it will work perfectly as well, of course.
“Spreading negative messages about Louis Vuitton will work as well. Spray graffiti, take down their websites, hand out flyers in front of their stores. We will do anything we can to punish Louis Vuitton for infringing on our freedom of artistic expression, for we are Anonymous. We do not forgive, we do not forget. Expect us.”
