LOS ANGELES, July 9, 2026. Soccer fans and Hyundai staff would have found it hard to miss the mobile billboard in Los Angeles today with a blunt message for the FIFA World Cup’s Official Partner.
The billboard reads: "Hyundai's playing it clean on the field. But behind the scenes: Child labor. Worker deaths. Coal pollution. Forced disappearances. Hyundai: clean up your supply chain."
Organized by corporate accountability watchdog Ekō, the billboard cuts through Hyundai's picture-perfect image – the slick car ads, test-drive giveaways, ball-kicking robots – to draw attention to the human and environmental cost of the company’s way of doing business.
A subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co used child labor at a plant that supplies parts for the automaker's assembly line in Alabama. Since 2022, three workers have died at Hyundai's Georgia plant. The company’s steel supply chain emits huge amounts of air pollution that is having devastating impacts on nearby communities. And Indigenous activists in Mexico went missing after protesting against Hyundai steel supplier, Ternium.
The billboard follows a global petition signed by more than 52,000 people from around the world demanding Hyundai stop the environmental and human rights violations occurring in its supply chain and transition to 100% electric vehicles. And since the World Cup started, football players aren’t the only ones being red carded, with more than 7,400 consumers, football fans and Hyundai drivers also “red-carding” Hyundai for its foul play.
“Hyundai wants all eyes on its world cup ads showing shiny cars and kids kicking soccer balls. But we won’t let that distract us from what’s been happening off the field in its supply chain: child labor, worker deaths and injuries linked to their operations, as well as the unexplained disappearances of Indigenous activists in Mexico who protested Hyundai’s steel supplier. Until Hyundai cleans up its supply chain we will broadcast our message publicly and continue to ramp up the pressure” said Nish Humphreys, Ekō campaigner.
→ VIEW the petition
→ VIEW the red card action
→ VIEW photos of the billboard
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Ekō is a global movement of consumers, investors, and workers all around the world, united together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable and just path for our global economy.
For more information about a current Ekō campaign or to arrange an interview with a spokesperson please contact us at
