In keeping with brandchannel's cinematic theme today, we're thinking you may be tired of glitzy glam and Hollywood hype, so here’s a refreshing alternative: the Media That Matters film festival, which selects a dozen short films each year to inspire projects and action around timely social issues.

It's a fresh take on game-changing ideas and social trends which may inspire brands looking to get more in touch with their social conscience.

Projects in its 2009 winning group of digital shorts include The Next Wave (above), about the Carteret Islanders, the first so-called ‘climate refugees,’ who are depicted fighting for survival as they're uprooted from their Papua New Guinea home.

Twelve films are showcased annually, each no longer than 12 minutes, and made by directors who are mostly under 21 years old.Continue reading...

A five-part Global Post investigation charges big-name brands like Apple and Microsoft with sourcing from exploitative factories in Asia guilty of human rights and work safety offenses. But do consumers even care?

Sweatshop scandals make for eye-catching headlines, but seem to have little impact on a company's image or bottom line. Consumers are able to compartmentalize their own priorities the far-off needs of strangers.Continue reading...

Tiffany & Company’s iconic blue box has long carried the tradition of revealing the quintessential diamond: a gift of timeless beauty, elegance, and world-class quality expected from a luxury brand with roots dating back to 1837. But the Wall Street Journal reports that not every Tiffany diamond is making the cut these days. Often, the precious gems are now being crafted by “the industry's least-experienced hands”:

In a windowless factory in this African village, Tiffany is teaching more than 80 workers to transform raw diamonds into gems for Tiffany engagement rings. As novices recently pressed pea-size stones against whirling blades, a visiting Tiffany executive spied a problem.

"You can see the polishing lines!" said Mark Hanna, an Antwerp, Belgium-based vice president of Tiffany's diamond unit. "Tiffany diamonds can't have polishing lines."

Earlier this decade, the diamond industry saw a surge in demand. Fearing the diamond supply was dwinding, and with mining giants like De Beers moving into the retail space by joining forces with LVMH, Tiffany felt it was necessary to move its operations further down its supply chain in order to compete.Continue reading...

The hue of Tiffany's signature blue boxes may verge slightly toward green. But who would have expected the jewelry giant to lead a green revolt against one of its own potential suppliers?

Four luxury companies, including a pair of class-ring manufacturers, have joined some of America’s top jewelry brands in boycotting the use of any gold extracted from Pebble Mine, a mineral exploration project in Alaska that critics say will disrupt the world's most productive salmon fishery. Tiffany & Co. is leading the list of brands representing nearly $4 billion in annual sales.Continue reading...