The 'Buy Responsibly' campaign aims at preventing trafficking in persons for forced and/or exploited labour in industrialized countries by raising awareness on the link between everyday products and the exploitative conditions under which eventually trafficked persons may have produced them. The campaign pursues a specific mission that is aiming at the following:

Raise consumer awareness on human trafficking for labour exploitation and its links to everyday products
Empower consumers by providing tools to question retailers on the traceability of products
Establish powerful partnerships with ethical consumer networks to demand trafficked labour free supply chain
Establish contacts with private sector companies in order to establish a supply chain monitoring system

In order to promote the campaign, several launch events have been organized in different European cities since October 2009 (Brussels, Geneva, Vienna, the Hague and Warsaw). The launch events consist in placing the upside-down trolley, symbol of the campaign, in a city's main shopping area. The campaign has been usually promoted on the occasion of an international or European event or a memorial day that relates to migration or countering human trafficking.

The upcoming launch of the Buy Responsibly campaign will take place in London on Anti-Slavery Day, October 18, 2011. IOM and NGOs, including the Human Trafficking Foundation, Anti-Slavery International, Barnardo’s and Stop the Traffik, will be on Trafalgar Square, London with the giant shopping trolley beginning at 10:00 am to urge consumers to play a greater role in ending human trafficking in the UK and across the world.