{"id":592849,"date":"2026-04-19T02:21:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/592849\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T02:21:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:21:23","slug":"calls-for-met-gala-boycott-after-bezos-foots-the-bill-brought-to-you-by-worker-exploitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/592849\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls for Met Gala boycott after Bezos foots the bill: \u2018Brought to you by worker exploitation\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A group of guerrilla activists are urging people to boycott this year\u2019s Met Gala<\/a> over the involvement of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.<\/p>\n

At various locations near the Metropolitan Museum in New York City,<\/a> posters have popped up with the words: \u201cBezos Met Gala: Brought to you by the firm that powers ICE\u201d and \u201cBoycott the Bezos Met Gala.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November, the Met announced that this year\u2019s biggest night in fashion<\/a> would be \u201cmade possible\u201d by the world\u2019s third-richest man and his wife, Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos, who were named as lead sponsors, alongside secondary donors, Cond\u00e9 Nast and Saint Laurent. The role is understood to give the couple influence over everything from invites to the overall presentation of the event. <\/p>\n

The sponsorship by the tech mogul \u2014 who recently spent millions on a movie by First Lady Melania Trump via his Amazon MGM film studios<\/a> \u2014 sparked backlash from critics who accused Bezos of buying influence at the prestigious fashion ball.<\/p>\n

The poster that referenced ICE shows a canister of tear gas on a red carpet, alluding to allegations that Amazon quietly purged foreign warehouse workers<\/a> who had legal authorization to work in the U.S. but lost it under President Donald Trump\u2019s deportation efforts. The Independent has contacted Bezos\u2019s representatives for comment.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe world\u2019s third-richest man and his wife, Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos, were named as lead sponsors for the 2026 Met Gala (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Another poster, stuck to a wall a few blocks from the museum, reads: \u201cThe Bezos Met Gala: Brought to you by worker exploitation,\u201d referencing alleged worker mistreatment<\/a> at Amazon order fulfillment centers.<\/p>\n

The flyer campaign was organized by the British political activist group Everyone Hates Elon, which describes itself as anti-billionaire. The group\u2019s name is inspired by the Tesla tech mogul Elon Musk.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The New York Times<\/a>, an anonymous leader of the group claimed that an online donation portal created last week has so far raised \u00a310,000 (around $13,000) to fund the postering campaign around the city.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe flyer campaign was organized by the British political activist group Everyone Hates Elon (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Everyone Hates Elon is the same group that traveled to Venice for Jeff Bezos and Lauren S\u00e1nchez\u2019s wedding last summer, displaying an enormous banner in the middle of the Piazza San Marco with a picture of a laughing Bezos beneath the words: \u201cIf you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anna Wintour, Vogue\u2019s global editorial director who has chaired the Met Gala since 1995, has attempted to quell the backlash over the couple\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n

She told<\/a> CNN in November: \u201cI think Lauren is going to be a wonderful asset to the museum and to the event. I\u2019m very grateful for her incredible generosity, and she\u2019s a great lover of costume and obviously of fashion, so we\u2019re thrilled she\u2019s part of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s sponsorship of the Met Gala breaks precedent from having a legacy fashion house as the primary sponsor.<\/p>\n

The dress code for the 4 May event is \u201cCostume Art,\u201d which explores the \u201ccentrality of the dressed body\u201d through depictions and interpretations of the human form in the Met\u2019s extensive collection.<\/p>\n

\"JeffJeff Bezos\u2019s wife Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos on the red carpet at the Met Gala 2025 (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The dress code is said to encourage guests to think about how they can use their bodies as a blank canvas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat connects every curatorial department and what connects every single gallery in the museum is fashion, or the dressed body,\u201d Andrew Bolton, the curator in charge of the Costume Institute, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the common thread throughout the whole museum, which is really what the initial idea for the exhibition was.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s co-chairs, who act as honorary hosts for the fundraiser, are Beyonc\u00e9, Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams. Members of the Gala Host Committee \u2014 co-chaired by Anthony Vaccarello and Zo\u00eb Kravitz \u2014 include singer Sabrina Carpenter, musician Doja Cat, ballerina Misty Copeland, Girls creator Lena Dunham, singer Sam Smith and One Battle After Another actor Teyana Taylor, among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[228,28,258619,690,32380,88,26844],"class_list":{"0":"post-592849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-civil-conflict","11":"tag-culture","12":"tag-demonstrations","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-riots"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}