Guerrilla Truth Labels

The pristine products lined up on fluorescent-lit shelves tell DELIBERATE LIES OF OMISSION while their corporate creators run three-card monte with the trail of blood and exploitation leading back to their boardrooms. These are men who hold champagne fundraisers for children’s charities while their supply chains crush actual children beneath the machinery of profit. The gleaming packaging doesn’t show the villages demolished for mineral extraction or the workers denied bathroom breaks to maintain “productivity metrics” for shareholders who’ve never set foot in the factories they own.

What they DON’T TELL YOU is precisely what gives you power. Every product sits naked and vulnerable for those brief moments between warehouse and register – an opportunity to connect ACTUAL CONSEQUENCES to their carefully sanitized brand narratives. A simple sticker becomes WEAPONIZED TRUTH when it exposes the distance between marketing fiction and blood-soaked reality.

TACTICAL BREAKDOWN

Guerrilla Truth Labels create direct interventions in consumer awareness by physically attaching documented facts to products responsible for specific harms. Unlike traditional boycotts, this tactic:

1. Creates immediate cognitive dissonance at the point of purchase
2. Bypasses media gatekeeping to deliver unfiltered information
3. Forces corporations to visibly remove factual information about their own products
4. Generates powerful visual evidence when shared on social media
5. Scales effectively with minimal resources and distributed networks

IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE

Phase One: Research & Design

Step 1: Target Selection

Focus on products with documented connections to specific, verifiable harms rather than general corporate malfeasance. Research supply chains thoroughly using resources like corporate watchdog reports, UN human rights documentation, and academic supply chain studies. Prioritize cases with clear causal connections that can be expressed in 10 words or less – “This smartphone contains cobalt mined by children in Congo” hits harder than vague accusations. Verify every claim through at least three independent sources to ensure factual accuracy that can withstand scrutiny.

Step 2: Message Crafting

Develop statements that are simultaneously shocking and undeniably factual. Avoid hyperbole or easily disputed claims – the power lies in documented truth that corporations themselves don’t deny in legal proceedings. Create 3-5 variations for each product to prevent easy identification patterns. Incorporate specific numbers where possible: “This product’s manufacturing created 72 tons of toxic waste dumped in the Citarum River” creates concrete visualization that generic statements lack. The most effective messages connect directly to the physical object in the consumer’s hand rather than abstract corporate behavior.

Step 3: Design Development

Create sticker designs that visually mimic official product labeling using similar fonts, colors, and layout conventions. This creates seconds of confusion where consumers aren’t sure if the label is part of the original packaging. Size stickers appropriately for target products – too large draws immediate attention from staff, too small reduces impact. Develop multiple designs including “warning label” yellow/black formats, “nutrition facts” parodies, and innocuous-looking barcodes that deliver messages when scanned. Always include tiny QR codes linking to documented evidence supporting your claims.

Phase Two: Production & Distribution

Step 4: Material Selection

Choose adhesive materials strategically based on your tactical goals. Paper stickers with standard adhesive allow for mass deployment but are easily removed. Vinyl stickers with permanent adhesive create lasting impact but increase potential legal exposure. Middle-ground options include paper stickers with unexpectedly strong adhesive or water-activated adhesives that become significantly harder to remove once fully dried. Test all materials on sample products to evaluate effectiveness and removal difficulty. Always use materials that won’t damage the product itself to avoid property damage claims.

Step 5: Production Security

Establish secure production processes that minimize physical evidence and digital trails. Use cash-purchased printers or community print shops rather than commercial services that require payment information. Create distribution cells where no individual possesses both design files and finished stickers. Implement basic operational security including clean workspaces (no fingerprints), fragmented production (one group designs, another prints, another distributes), and strict information compartmentalization where each participant knows only their specific role in the process.

Step 6: Deployment Tactics

Develop location-specific deployment strategies that maximize impact while minimizing risk. Train participants in “normal shopping” behaviors that don’t trigger suspicion, including appropriate dress, shopping patterns, and product interaction. Apply stickers while products are in your cart or during brief moments when shelves are unobserved. Target high-traffic stores during peak hours when staff attention is divided among many customers. Create distraction protocols for complex deployments including two-person teams where one creates brief, innocent distractions while the other applies labels. Always maintain plausible deniability through careful planning and rehearsal.

Phase Three: Amplification & Evolution

Step 7: Documentation & Sharing

Establish protocols for safely documenting deployed stickers without connecting them to specific activists. Use separate teams who visit stores days after deployment to photograph labels “discovered” in the wild. Create dedicated anonymous social media accounts using secure practices to share images alongside additional research supporting the sticker claims. Develop relationships with sympathetic journalists who can amplify particularly effective campaigns. Package documentation for easy sharing across platforms, including pre-written posts with relevant hashtags and concise summaries of the documented issues.

Step 8: Response & Adaptation

Monitor corporate and retail responses to your campaign and adapt accordingly. Document removal efforts, which often create additional opportunities to highlight the information being suppressed. When stores implement countermeasures like increased surveillance, shift to different store locations or temporarily switch to alternative tactics. Evolve label designs and application methods based on field reports from participants. Maintain flexible coordination structures that allow rapid tactical shifts without compromising security or effectiveness.

RESOURCE DIRECTORY

Research Sources

• Corporate Accountability Lab’s supply chain documentation archive
• Business & Human Rights Resource Centre searchable database
• Global Witness corporate investigations
• Public Eye corporate research reports
• International Labor Rights Forum case studies

Design Tools

• Scribus (open-source layout software with minimal tracking)
• Signal+Inkscape combination for secure design collaboration
• Font matching tools for corporate typography replication
• QR code generators with tracking prevention

Security Resources

• EFF’s Surveillance Self-Defense guides
• Security in a Box operational security toolkit
• The Anarchist Library’s Security Culture handbook

EXAMPLES FROM THE FIELD

In 2023, a distributed network in Australia targeted smartphone manufacturers with stickers connecting specific models to documented cobalt mining abuses. The campaign generated significant media coverage when customers began refusing previously tagged products, forcing store managers to publicly remove factual information about their merchandise. Similar campaigns have effectively highlighted fashion brands connected to the Rana Plaza collapse, chocolate producers using documented child labor, and cosmetics companies concealing animal testing through subsidiary relationships.

COUNTERING OPPOSITION

Retail staff typically respond to discovered stickers by removing them without escalation. If confronted while deploying, maintain plausible deniability with phrases like “I just noticed this too – is this some new disclosure requirement?” If security footage is mentioned, remember that most retail security systems record on short loops and footage is rarely reviewed without specific incident reports. Legal responses typically involve cease-and-desist letters rather than prosecution, as corporations avoid creating court records that would require them to dispute specific factual claims under oath.

THE NEXT BATTLEFIELD

As this tactic spreads, expect increased surveillance in retail environments and potential legislation specifically targeting “product tampering” definitions to include informational stickers. The logical evolution moves toward digital augmentation, where smartphone apps can instantly overlay documented harm information onto products through camera recognition, creating virtual labels that can’t be physically removed. The battle ultimately isn’t about stickers but about who controls the contextual information surrounding consumer products – a struggle for the visible reality of what our economic choices actually mean.

RELATED ACTION ITEMS

• Augmented Reality Corporate Crime Scene Tours
• Distributed Supply Chain Investigation Networks
• QR-Linked Ethical Alternative Directories
• Worker-Consumer Solidarity Information Systems
• Strategic Corporate Whistleblower Support Structures