How badger bombs and politics brought Lush sales of £500m

Cosmetics company Lush has managed to combine record sales with controversial campaigns. Don't expect others to copy

Lush likes to cause a stink. As well as its smelly shops and package-free produce, a large chunk of the handmade cosmetics company's time and money is spent on political activism.

Far from carefully choosing a few business-friendly good causes, Lush has backed a plethora of controversial causes from Guantanamo prisoners, to hunt saboteurs and the anti-fracking campaign. It does this through financial donations - totalling 5m a year in 2015 - and in-store products such as the May Day bath bombs, which supported activists opposed to the badger cull. It also supports groups in favour of peaceful resistance to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.