The department houses a large and growing compilation of quotations on activism, social change and current events which the company dips into to find messages to print in huge block letters on lorries, billboards, parking lots, company cars and 'any other blank space we can find.' The company cars sport large warning labels like those found on cigarette packets: 'Global Warming: Cars cause 80% of all air pollution and severe life-threatening climate change.'
Department initiatives include a UK-wide campaign to collect 100,000 old keys from customers to use in a joint campaign with Shelter to get the government to provide 100,000 additional homes a year at affordable rental rates. The keys will be transformed into a huge sculpture to be presented to the government.
The Department of Social Inventions is developing a series of free action alerts to be distributed in branches of The Body Shop on a number of important social and environmental issues. Each action alert will describe problems such as global warming, suggest a solution, and encourage customers to take a specific action. The action alerts can be updated easily, enabling rapid response to current events.
On the wackier side, the department is forming an employee African Drumming group and hopes one day to create the longest corporate conga line in world history.
Jeremy Sherman, Department of Social Inventions, The Body Shop International plc, Watersmead, Littlehampton, West Sussex BN17 6LS (tel 0903 731500; fax 0903 726250).