Amazon has become something of a capitalist villain in recent years, yet it remains undeterred in its unrelenting pursuit of results. Such is the pressure that Amazon puts on its employees that some of its drivers have reportedly taken to urinating in bottles to meet the e-commerce giant’s expectations. One documentarian decided to put a little more focus on what that meant about the company’s priorities.
Oobah Butler is a journalist and documentarian, who has gained notoriety for large scale stunts. His latest was to collect bottles of urine from the company’s drivers and then sell them on Amazon. Moreover, he wanted to make the product a number one seller on the online marketplace.
So, he went out to an Amazon Fulfillment Center in the U.K. to collect urine from drivers, he says in a recent article for Vice. Then, with the help of some friends, he created a bottle and branding for his new product: Release Energy.
Read: Amazon Facing Lawsuit Alleging It Forced Delivery Drivers To Pee In Bottles
Even Butler seems to have some qualms about his stunt, because he first categorizes it as a “refillable pump dispenser.” However, Amazon allegedly moved it to the energy drink category automatically, without requiring any proof from the seller that it was safe for consumption.
A spokesperson for Amazon told Wired that the company as “industry-leading tools to prevent genuinely unsafe products from being listed,” and referred to Butler’s actions as a “crude stunt.”
Emboldened, Butler then petitioned the company to categorize Release Energy as a (less popular) bitter lemon drink, to improve its odds of reaching the top of its chart. After asking all of his friends to buy the product, he saw that some strangers had actually started buying it.
Up and away to the top of the charts
Although he canceled all of the orders to people he didn’t know, he says he still managed to get to the top of the charts, with a bottle of urine collected from Amazon’s own drivers. It’s all a darkly amusing commentary on the massive company’s policies and the depths it will plumb for profits, and it all comes on the back of real human suffering.
In fact, Butler opens his article for Vice with a moving, and troubling interview with a driver called Christian. A former professional soccer player from El Salvador, he said that the relentless pace and the heat of driving for Amazon in Los Angeles in the summer was actually more physically taxing than being an athlete. He also called having to pee in bottles as “degrading.”
“I only do this because I have no other options,” said the driver. “Other people who go slower just end up getting fired.”
You can see more about the Release Energy stunt as part of a documentary called ‘The Great Amazon Heist’ that premieres on the U.K.’s Channel 4 on October 19.
