“Fur-Free Friday” protests the quietest ever

SANDY PARKER REPORT, VOL. 31, ISSUE 39, DEC. 3, 2007
The following extract is reproduced with permission from Sandy Parker Reports, Weekly International Fur News. Sandy Parker has been covering the fur industry for more than four decades. For most of that time he has published a weekly newsletter, detailing results of international pelt auctions, wholesale price trends, business developments and movements in the trade, as well as economic and political activities that may impact on it.
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International Fur News
with Sandy Parker
“Fur-Free Friday” protests the quietest ever
THIS YEAR’S ANTI-FUR ACTIVITIES ON SO-CALLED ‘FUR-FREE FRIDAY’ marked the 21st anniversary of that movement and was described as the quietest ever. So quiet, in fact, that media coverage was almost non-existent. A red-letter day on the activists’ calendar, when they go all-out to win public support for their cause with marches and demonstrations staged to attract media attention, this year’s again proved to be a non-event, according to retailers and authorities in cities that were targeted. The main focus has always been New York City, with marches for a mile or so down Fifth Avenue and other main thoroughfares and raucous rallies at upscale stores along the route. At their peak in the late-1980s, the marchers numbered as many as 2,000 and the events were well recorded by the media.
But times have changed, as have people’s concerns and the media’s sense of what constitutes news and merits their space or time. Not only has the anti-fur issue given way to a resurgence in fur’s fashion appeal and lost its news value, but the war in Iraq, continuing problems in the Middle East and other concerns closer to home have been providing enough fodder to fill pages and air time. But this year’s activities themselves could hardly be called newsworthy in terms of either size or nature.
PROMOTION DEPT.: The Fur Council of Canada is launching a million-dollar newspaper advertising campaign across the country this week extolling the virtues of fur as environmentally friendly. The ads, appearing in national papers, feature a young fur-clad woman as an environmental activist and use such catchphrases as renewable, recyclable, biodegradable and non-toxic to depict fur as eco-friendly. The council also stresses the humane treatment of animals used to produce fur.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Mercury Drop Sparks Sales
Weather Still Key to Season
Russian, Chinese Markets Active
Anti-Fur Demonstrations Muted
U.S. Consumer Confidence Down
For extracts from back issues of Sandy Parker Reports see News Index. Subscribers can access an archive of complete issues at www.sandyparker.com.
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