Fair Trade Aid

Oxfam America, a Boston-based international development and relief agency, with the aid of branding agency Benenson Janson, has launched a celeb-driven print campaign in which stars allow a mess to be made of their images for a good cause — to drive concerned citizens to an online petition at www.maketradefair.com.

As the agency explains, "Millions of small-scale farmers all over the world cannot make a living because rich countries subsidize their biggest, richest farmers and agricultural businesses to overproduce. These massive, global farming operations dump the surplus on poorer countries and push down the price, making it impossible for local farmers to compete. As a result of these practices, more than half of the people who make a living from agriculture live on less than $2 a day."

A bunch of progressive-minded actors and musicians, including Minnie Driver, Michael Stipe, Antonio Banderas, Bono, Alanis Morissette and Thom Yorke, lend their cachet for an in-their-face interpretation of the issue.

You’ll see some of the biggest celebrities in the world literally being dumped on — in effect, degraded, dehumanized and victimized, much as the people in these small countries are by this selfish, mindless dumping.