Anita Roddick - too young to die
64 is far too young to die. Especially when she would have enjoyed a gleeful old age as the market mainstreams business ethics - the Anita of her books, ranting about slow moving government and dirty multi-national companies, would have been able to do her bit, slow down, and satisfy herself with that lovely warm feeling that "I told you so" brings.
Did she mainstream ethical consumption? She was certainly one of the main players and certainly one of the people that influenced me. When I was 14 I used to shop in the second Body Shop in Reading, which looked more like a 'head shop', introduced to me by my only hippy friend, it was a million miles away from the Body Shop stores of today. Then when I arrived in Tokyo 17 years ago, I worked in the first Body Shop there. Japanese who had lived in the UK flooded in, expecting the same campaigning and activist nature of the Body Shop of that time, and were surprised that little other than neat rows of cosmetics was in place. I remember running a letter to the hotel that Anita was staying at saying that I thought that the Chinese gift baskets seemed far from Community Trade, and a dozen other gems of advice. Needless to say I did not get a reply.
I do remember meeting Anita at the shop opening party and getting a big hug - I was very impressed that she would hug a lowly sales person! So many people to meet and so many hugs - the thought has often kept me going when I answer the same questions to the umpteenth Japanese university student after a presentation...that was Anita's star quality- her genuine passion and warmth. I went on to answer a lot of the questions that those Body Shop customers wanted by launching an environmental and social justice group called Global Village, then People Tree.
Building and creating momentum for an ethical market internationally, as well as in the UK, is certainly something that Anita and her company did.
Ethical Consumers like all of us have seen how our consumers choices, from boycotts, to the support of Fair Trade and organics, can change the way an industry thinks. But what a shame that she won't be able to enjoy watching the changes as an old person - she deserved to live as long as those Italians you find walking up and down in the Pyrenees until they are 110!
Rest in Peace Anita. Thanks for the hug and inspiration!
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