No One Said Stop 2020

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Application project to Rhode Island School of Design. We were instructed to pick something in need of repair and come up with a solution to fix it. The essay that accompanied the project is as follows:

 

Unpaid internships are a dated and exploitative process that has no justification in the modern day. Implementing a practice that expects a skilled workforce to provide free labor at for profit companies is something that is banned in many places in Europe but continues to be widespread in New York and beyond in the United States. The DOL has outlined a six part criteria in it's Fair Labor Standards Act to see whether an internship meets the guidelines to be unpaid. Classically it is loose and provides a nebulous set of rules that are open to interpretation. My experience interning in the fashion industry has allowed me to see the sidestepping of these rules first hand. It is a practice that by default favors those who are more financially solvent while those at a disadvantaged or lower socioeconomic run cannot afford to work for free and expect to support themselves.

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I believe that as long as the rules are flexible and able to be broken by companies they. Instead of dictating a new set of rules i think it best to outlaw the practice of free labor in whatever form it may come in entirely and forever. I made a hypothetical ad campaign using the same subterfuge that many corporations and similar entities employ nowadays. Emulating a government council both advertising the benefits of hiring free intern labor, and being hired as such, I made an edition of three ads and put them up in the subways.