Nude Protest Over Oil: PR Spin Worse Than BP, Dammit

By Paul Knight Wed., Jun. 9 2010 at 4:15 PM

Categories: Spaced City, Whatever

Who doesn't love a nude protest?

We don't know much about public relations, but if we sent out a press release titled, "Naked Protesters Bare All Against Dirty Oil," we'd at least deliver the naked protesters.

But maybe that's not why we're in public relations, because this afternoon, inside the tiny Lush cosmetics store at Baybrook Mall, ourselves, along with a photographer from the Houston Chronicle (another news agency was leaving as we showed up), lined up to see naked women protest "dirty oil."

Turns out, the protesters were a store manager and three sales clerks from Lush. The manager was the closest to naked, dressed in a cardboadish cutout meant to resemble an oil barrel. And she wasn't even naked underneath it!

(Pictures of the "protest" after the jump.)

Doris Simpson protests dirty oil.

The other three women wore white t-shirts that said, "Time for an oil change or we'll lose it all."

But at least they were doing it for a good cause.

"We're a very politically charged company," Doris Simpson, the store manager, told Hair Balls after mentioning the store's Wild Rose Country Bath Bomb. "Last year we had a 'Save the Seals' campaign."

Proceeds from bath bomb will apparently help stop Canada's Tar Sands, "sludgy deposits in the heart of Canada's Boreal forest" that are "fueling U.S. oil addiction," according to informational pamphlets handed out at Lush.

"We thought it was time to stand up for the rights of animals and humans, for people to become more aware," Simpson said. "It's a great campaign for us."

In all seriousness, we would like to congratulate the women at Lush for doing something for this cause. But next time, please get naked.