Choose Love Harnesses Festive Retail Buzz for Social Good

Scaling up the charity’s previous festive pop-ups on Carnaby Street (see Holiday 2023: Brand Engagement Trends), Choose Love’s 2024 activation  was created in partnership with British production designer Misty Buckley (known for her high-profile entertainment work, including the Academy Awards and Glastonbury festival). Adorned with tinsel, baubles and fairy lights, the pop-up’s merchandising leans into traditional festive abundance, allowing visitors to replicate the consumerist thrill of Christmas shopping while donating to those in need.

Upon entering the store, visitors are given a ‘shopping list’, with tick boxes and prices corresponding with Choose Love’s donation packages. At the end of their experience, visitors take their shopping list to the checkout and can purchase the donation packages themselves or as a festive gift on behalf of friends and family. Aside from a selection of Choose Love merch and wrapping paper, visitors are not able to purchase physical products to take home. The products displayed are physical representations of goods and services that, upon donation, will be given to vulnerable populations.

The store spans multiple ‘departments’, including:

• Shoe Department: In collaboration with global art series The Empathy Museum – whose experiences encourage attendees to see the world from alternative perspectives – the store continued its travelling installation ‘A Mile in My Shoes’.
  
  Visitors are invited to participate in the experience by finding a shoe box in their size containing a pair of shoes (donated by real-life refugees and asylum seekers), audio device and headphones. While trying on the shoes, visitors listen to a short story documenting the experiences of UK asylum seekers. For example, a box containing blue velvet ballet pumps recounts a story from Rosa who fled from the Ivory Coast.
  
  
• Community Care Department: Spotlighting the essential supplies that many refugees and displaced people are forced to do without, the Community Care department features festive dioramas created by British miniature artist Laura Woodroffe. These are stylised representations of Choose Love’s Saving and Rebuilding Lives donation bundles. One diorama depicting a toy ambulance carrying a Christmas tree corresponds to the £40 ($51) Life-Saving Medical Treatment donation, which funds hospitals in conflict zones. Another featuring small plants decorated with miniature rainbow baubles represents the £25 ($32) Rainbow Support donation, which funds shelter, legal representation and community spaces for LGBTQ+ individuals living in places where they may be persecuted.
  
  
• Shelter Department: Prompting visitors to donate tents, blankets and sleeping bags, British artist Grace Manning created an installation titled ‘The Light Within’. Crafted from waste festival tents and upcycled fabrics (donated by British circular festival tent rental company Camplight), it’s embellished with the appliquéd words Love, Respect, Integrity, Courage and Humanity. At its centre is an illuminated buoy, sourced by British coastal clean-up organisation Beach Guardians, dedicated to individuals seeking refuge who lost their lives at sea.
  
  
• Winter Essentials Department: Mirroring the merchandising of a traditional department store, this area houses adult and child mannequins dressed in coats, hats and scarves to emphasise the increased need for warm clothing during the winter period, especially for those forced to live in sub-zero temperatures due to displacement. Adjacent to the mannequins, a wall-mounted rail displays baby clothes, promoting Choose Love’s £25 ($32) New Baby Bundle package, which provides warm clothes and blankets for families in need.