Featured Image Credit: @chris.smalls_ / Instagram
The Met Gala has never been short of drama, but this year's edition caused controversy well beyond the red carpet.
The event's tech-heavy direction drew major backlash, with protests flaring across New York both before and during the night.
Some tech figures kept a low profile as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for one, skipped the red carpet cameras while OpenAI's Sam Altman appeared to give the event a miss altogether.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez, were honorary chairs and reported donating $10 million to the Gala.
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Bezos was in the crosshairs of the Gala protestors, as nearly 300 'bottles of urine' were left at the venue as a statement against his involvement.
In the days before the event, Chris Smalls, former president of the Amazon Labor Union, projected a video message directly onto the billionaire's penthouse in New York City.
Smalls, who was later reportedly arrested outside the Met Gala, used the projection to deliver a pointed and personal address to his former employer.
"What's going on Jeff?" the activist started off with. "Remember me? The fired Amazon worker that you signed off on a smear campaign calling me not smart or articulate. But you also said you'd make me the face of the whole unionising efforts against Amazon."
The video, which was shared by @everyonehateselon_ on Instagram, drew crowds of passersby who stopped to watch as Smalls laid out a series of grievances against the company.
"Amazon is heavily invested in this genocide. They invest $7.2 billion into Project Nimbus," the former e-commerce worker explained.
The 37-year-old accused Amazon of investing $7.2 billion into Project Nimbus, which he described as 'funding and empowering surveillance technology used to target Palestinians.' He also claimed that the tech giant has ties to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleging that the company powers ICE devices.
Smalls then drew a sharp contrast between the billion-dollar gala attended by the world's wealthiest people and the poverty visible on the streets directly outside.
"We gotta remind ourselves that it's more of us than it is of them. And when we fight back, every time we win."
He ended his message with a direct statement: "Billionaires shouldn't exist. Billionaires, they gotta go."
As the video concluded, the projection displayed: "Boycott the Bezos Met Gala."
People have been praising the campaign in the comments.
"This campaign is fire. I love it so much!! Billionaires should not exist," one viewer wrote.
"Wonderfully said," another added while a third user replied: "Bravo sir!"
A fourth viewer commented: "Strong. Finally a decent activist campaign. Congrats to everyone involved."
