Dear Supporter,

Pull out those Flipcams, Iphones, and other video devices.  They are about to make history.

Join activists nationwide placing s’more-tastic child labor consumer alert cards on Hershey chocolate bars in stores, videotaping the action, and sending it to friends.

As if that isn’t cool enough already, this action is one of the early uses of Quick Response (QR) codes for social justice actions!  People who see the consumer alerts will be able to take action right away by reading the QR code with their smartphones.

Take the action this week to set off the fireworks from one person to the next all summer!

Check it out and get inspired!  Awesome video of the people taking the Consumer Alert action across the country: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWP6q79ft4g

How it’s done:

1. Print copies of the Hershey consumer alert in color or in black and white and fold them in half, and grab your favorite video filming device
2. At local stores, videotape yourself placing consumer alerts on the Hershey display, s’mores display, and/or Hershey section of the candy aisle.  Have fun with it!  It can be completely simple – no editing required.
3. In the video, be sure to say who you are, the town where you’re taking action, and why you care about ending child labor in the cocoa industry and replacing it with Fair Trade.  At the end of the video, ask viewers to visit raisethebarhershey.org to take the action within a week themselves; zoom in on the www.raisethebarhershey.org URL on the consumer alert, if you can.
4. Send the video to all your friends, make it your Facebook status update, tweet it, upload it to YouTube, etc
5. Definitely email us a link right away at fairtrade@globalexchange.org, so we can share, post and celebrate your actions from coast to coast.

Please note:  As long as you are discreet, most stores will not notice that you are taking the action.  If a store employee does approach you and objects to the consumer alert cards, you should agree not to place them, and use it as an opportunity to engage with the store manager about your concerns regarding child labor in chocolate.  If the store asks you to leave the premises, it is their right to do so; please comply with their request.

Optional:  Bring along copies of the We Want More from Our S'mores photo posters to hold up in your video

Don’t have a videocamera?  No prob.  You can take the action without taping it.  Making a video makes a bigger impact, though, because it gets the message out to thousands more people.

If you haven’t taken our s’mores action yet, by making Fair Trade s’mores, don’t miss out!  It’s delicious!  More information here:  http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/cocoa/smoresproject.html

Why take action?  Global Exchange is one of the organizers of the Raise the Bar Hershey Campaign, which is asking Hershey to stop using chocolate tainted with child and forced labor and trafficking and use Fair Trade certified cocoa instead!  Details here:  http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/cocoa/raisethebarhershey.html

Please forward this email broadly.

*Make sure to include a description of the video and a link to the campaign website (www.RaiseTheBarHershey.org). Some “tags” you can use when posting on YouTube are: Hershey, Raise the Bar Hershey, child labor, forced labor, trafficking, cocoa, s’mores, Fair Trade.