H&M is supposedly opening a store in the downtown Portland location Saks currently occupies, but is soon leaving. A few weeks ago, on the sidewalk across the street from it, a pair of protesters began appearing daily, holding a large banner - maybe 5' high and 20' long - bearing the words "SHAME ON H & M".

There's just the one banner, and the guys holding either end of it look like they were paid to just hold the sign all day - they don't interact with traffic or passersby; most of the time they're wearing headphones. So, there's no context.

Evidently someone clued in that the message wasn't really clear, so the words "LABOR DISPUTE" have been added, in smaller letters, at either end of the banner. But this leaves open the interpretation that the point of the banner is to call shame upon the labor dispute itself - or upon the party disputing H&M's labor policy, rather than upon H&M specifically.

Maybe I'm just looking for reasons to criticize the ineffective nature of this campaign because of how weakly it's being executed. I mean, way to stand behind your belief by paying someone else to hold a sign on a sidewalk so you don't have to.