With Amazon founder Jeff Bezos co-chairing this year's Met Gala alongside his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, the unrepentant billionaires have inspired creative protests ahead of the fashion world's big night on Monday.
Protests Against Bezos and Trump Ties
Bezos and Sánchez are known to be allies of President Donald Trump, and amid skyrocketing public disapproval of the Trump administration's immigration policies and warmongering, the left-wing activist group Everyone Hates Elon is calling on people to boycott the event at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“The Bezos Met Gala Invites You To Party Like It’s 1939,” read a parody advertisement the group put up in New York. Underneath, the spoof reads, “Democracy is so last season” and “Dress code: willful ignorance.” One of the first ads the group put up to protest the Met Gala appeared in New York about a month ago. The ad read “The Bezos Met Gala” and was captioned: “Brought to you by the firm that powers ICE.”
A person puts up a "BOYCOTT THE BEZOS MET GALA" poster in New York City last month.
Forbes reported in January that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has spent at least $140 million on cloud computing services from Amazon.
Escalating Tactics
Last week, another ad went up that read “Amazon Powers ICE” with a photoshopped image of Bezos in a tactical vest. In recent days, Everyone Hates Elon left 300 small bottles of fake urine inside the Met in a nod to the Amazon workers who have no time to take bathroom breaks on the job and are left to relieve themselves in plastic bottles. And on Sunday, the guerrilla protest group projected video interviews with Amazon workers onto the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and Bezos' New York City penthouse. One interview featured a 72-year-old Amazon worker who said that if it weren't for every worker at every Amazon facility, Bezos wouldn't “have all those zeros behind his name.”
Political and Celebrity Reactions
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is not attending the Met Gala, telling Hell Gate earlier this month that his focus is on “making the most expensive city in the United States affordable.” Many of the city's past mayors have attended the fashion event, but on Monday, Mamdani told i-D he planned to support garment workers instead.
Meredith Lynch, a TikTok personality with more than 341,000 followers, warned celebrities who plan to attend the Met Gala while also opposing ICE that she would be “dragging them in perpetuity.”
“You cannot wear the ICE Out pin to the Jeff Bezos-backed Met Gala,” she said on TikTok Saturday. “Jeff Bezos is part of the reason we’re in this fucking mess. Jeff Bezos supports this fucking mess.”
