This evening a YouTube ad caught my attention. Normally, I
skip right over these things but this time something about it caught my eye;
the caption. A mildly moving question seeming to pry into our globally minded
hearts, cleverly designed to create a melancholic sentiment its content would
later settle. But that wasn’t what caught my attention. The word “Unilever”
did. I took a step back from my hurried “skip ad” button with incredulity. Surely
not, I thought.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWTVCkvQzY8
I claim, in no way, to be any sort of ethical guru, but something called out to me and I watched through the ad. Since returning to India I have been dosed with what I can only deem a healthy dose of scepticism, courtesy mostly of one man preaching wariness of our unconscious reliance of major global brands. Unilever, according to Teletrader.com is worth just under 50 billion euros and is one of the world’s leading food companies and the second largest packaged consumer goods in the world. It is a monster company. I was shocked when I began looking on the backs of my deodorant, my soap, my foods and, not mine, but the countless other household goods around my home. They have often been criticized for contradictory messaging in advertising (Lynx and Dove) and its lack of land protection policies.
Otherwise, Oxfam have dubbed Unilever, along with Nestle, as amongst the most improved of their rated food brands. Further, Oxfam and Unicef have partnered with Unilever’s newest campaign. Sounds promising, right? Maybe global pressure has gotten to Unilever and it really does create the sense amongst companies that they must be seen to work for a better world. But, forgive me for being cynical, but I think a step back should be taken here. What exactly are Unilever stating in this “Project Sunlight” campaign? Very little, from what I could gather. They promised little, but made profound and sensational statements throughout their advert. Indeed, the video seemed to be little other than an advert. It felt entirely like a piece of marketing.
A good friend of mine may remember my rant when I sat down with a coffee in McDonalds on Grafton Street, Dublin, on a cool spring Wednesday evening. Sitting down at the table, a card displaying an appetising double cheeseburger (I have a shameful weakness for these bad boys) sat perched between me and my friend. Below the burger the picture had emblazoned a one euro coin, if I remember correctly. The idea of the picture was written on the card, for every double cheeseburger bought Maccers donated a portion of the money to a good cause. At this point I can’t even remember the stated cause. I thought, well and good but! I couldn’t stomach it. I couldn’t appreciate the supposed decency that was being portrayed that, in my opinion glorified the purchase of an unhealthy product of a not to kindly considered multi-national company. To me, it was a cold hearted ploy to comfort a society’s tendency to unhealthy and unconscious choice of food. By eating this burger, you are doing good and thus any guilt you might feel was assuaged. Maybe you’d even buy another; after all, you were helping the world.
This is what this new Unilever campaign seems to sing to me. On one hand, I want to believe the steps that Unilever insinuate to be taking are truly altruistic, but I don’t see any evidence towards this. A foray onto the Project Sunlight told me very little. In fact, amongst their snazzily laid out website Unilever paralleled their products with tug the heartstrings style captions concerning global sustainability and citizenship, and yet they still produce aerosols. Seems kinda backwards to me. This campaign really gets on my nerves. I am no major corporation bashing hater, and marketing and advertisement are well and good in my books in most instances. I do agree that they manipulate people and if people want to be taken in, so be it. It galls me but there is little I can do about it. However, there are a few things I can’t stomach, manipulative marketing towards children and towards health are high amongst them. Many internet trends in the last few decades have shown that people are more than willing to “do good” by acting online. I am undoubtedly one of them. I also make no claim that there is a subconscious sense of patting oneself on the pack through these actions that is not exactly entirely selfless. Be that as it may, it exists to a huge extent. Many websites make a fortune off these sensations, we need look no further than the Kony 2012 campaign to see how powerfully this sentiment can be used to dupe us; but the Kony campaign has been hidden away in our minds. Why did Kony flash so brazenly across out cyberspace, as powerful and then distantly gone as a supernova? We are all completely aware of our prideful desire to do good, to be good but to not necessarily overstrain ourselves. We are ashamed of it. So we hide behind the internet for fear the cause we might support may not be so virtuous. We tentatively click to petitions, unsure of whether we are being manipulated or not. How could we not when we hear of instances of profiteering supposed well doers. Only in recent weeks Kim Kardashian has been publicly slammed for withholding over 90% of her Pilipino typhoon fund. How inexorably sickening of a human being does that take?
Maybe I am overly cynical, or maybe not. I know one thing though; we definitely need to stop kidding ourselves. How can a society of animals who pride themselves and attribute their very existence in their ability to think, allow others to do it for them. We shun effort and feel it’s ok to justify our day to day choices because some surface pretension gives us comfort. We are all guilty of unconscious behaviour. We find it difficult to consider others close in physical proximity to us, let alone further abroad. But we need, as a species to wake up and start thinking for ourselves. Learning from others is well and good but sometimes we have to start learning from our own abilities or else we will only do damage. We cannot continue to accept collective wisdom and public statements as fact. How can we justify buying Knowr, Lynx and Dove, with a simple shrug saying “ah well have you heard about that campaign, they seem to be doing some sort of good”. None of us are perfect, we make mistakes. I for one buy things I am aware as unethical. We all have weaknesses, but what makes me upset as an unwillingness to think about our choices. By letting others make them for us on such a lowly subconscious manipulative basis, we cannot make progress. Yes, it is good that Unilever are making stides to be a more ethical company, but it is important to question why. Are they responding to international consumer pressure or are they taking advantage of the growing trends of consumer desire, pre-emptively. Is it an honest move, or a gambit to which we will fall for and then hide from like Kony? And will it happen to us, again and again?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWTVCkvQzY8
I claim, in no way, to be any sort of ethical guru, but something called out to me and I watched through the ad. Since returning to India I have been dosed with what I can only deem a healthy dose of scepticism, courtesy mostly of one man preaching wariness of our unconscious reliance of major global brands. Unilever, according to Teletrader.com is worth just under 50 billion euros and is one of the world’s leading food companies and the second largest packaged consumer goods in the world. It is a monster company. I was shocked when I began looking on the backs of my deodorant, my soap, my foods and, not mine, but the countless other household goods around my home. They have often been criticized for contradictory messaging in advertising (Lynx and Dove) and its lack of land protection policies.
Otherwise, Oxfam have dubbed Unilever, along with Nestle, as amongst the most improved of their rated food brands. Further, Oxfam and Unicef have partnered with Unilever’s newest campaign. Sounds promising, right? Maybe global pressure has gotten to Unilever and it really does create the sense amongst companies that they must be seen to work for a better world. But, forgive me for being cynical, but I think a step back should be taken here. What exactly are Unilever stating in this “Project Sunlight” campaign? Very little, from what I could gather. They promised little, but made profound and sensational statements throughout their advert. Indeed, the video seemed to be little other than an advert. It felt entirely like a piece of marketing.
A good friend of mine may remember my rant when I sat down with a coffee in McDonalds on Grafton Street, Dublin, on a cool spring Wednesday evening. Sitting down at the table, a card displaying an appetising double cheeseburger (I have a shameful weakness for these bad boys) sat perched between me and my friend. Below the burger the picture had emblazoned a one euro coin, if I remember correctly. The idea of the picture was written on the card, for every double cheeseburger bought Maccers donated a portion of the money to a good cause. At this point I can’t even remember the stated cause. I thought, well and good but! I couldn’t stomach it. I couldn’t appreciate the supposed decency that was being portrayed that, in my opinion glorified the purchase of an unhealthy product of a not to kindly considered multi-national company. To me, it was a cold hearted ploy to comfort a society’s tendency to unhealthy and unconscious choice of food. By eating this burger, you are doing good and thus any guilt you might feel was assuaged. Maybe you’d even buy another; after all, you were helping the world.
This is what this new Unilever campaign seems to sing to me. On one hand, I want to believe the steps that Unilever insinuate to be taking are truly altruistic, but I don’t see any evidence towards this. A foray onto the Project Sunlight told me very little. In fact, amongst their snazzily laid out website Unilever paralleled their products with tug the heartstrings style captions concerning global sustainability and citizenship, and yet they still produce aerosols. Seems kinda backwards to me. This campaign really gets on my nerves. I am no major corporation bashing hater, and marketing and advertisement are well and good in my books in most instances. I do agree that they manipulate people and if people want to be taken in, so be it. It galls me but there is little I can do about it. However, there are a few things I can’t stomach, manipulative marketing towards children and towards health are high amongst them. Many internet trends in the last few decades have shown that people are more than willing to “do good” by acting online. I am undoubtedly one of them. I also make no claim that there is a subconscious sense of patting oneself on the pack through these actions that is not exactly entirely selfless. Be that as it may, it exists to a huge extent. Many websites make a fortune off these sensations, we need look no further than the Kony 2012 campaign to see how powerfully this sentiment can be used to dupe us; but the Kony campaign has been hidden away in our minds. Why did Kony flash so brazenly across out cyberspace, as powerful and then distantly gone as a supernova? We are all completely aware of our prideful desire to do good, to be good but to not necessarily overstrain ourselves. We are ashamed of it. So we hide behind the internet for fear the cause we might support may not be so virtuous. We tentatively click to petitions, unsure of whether we are being manipulated or not. How could we not when we hear of instances of profiteering supposed well doers. Only in recent weeks Kim Kardashian has been publicly slammed for withholding over 90% of her Pilipino typhoon fund. How inexorably sickening of a human being does that take?
Maybe I am overly cynical, or maybe not. I know one thing though; we definitely need to stop kidding ourselves. How can a society of animals who pride themselves and attribute their very existence in their ability to think, allow others to do it for them. We shun effort and feel it’s ok to justify our day to day choices because some surface pretension gives us comfort. We are all guilty of unconscious behaviour. We find it difficult to consider others close in physical proximity to us, let alone further abroad. But we need, as a species to wake up and start thinking for ourselves. Learning from others is well and good but sometimes we have to start learning from our own abilities or else we will only do damage. We cannot continue to accept collective wisdom and public statements as fact. How can we justify buying Knowr, Lynx and Dove, with a simple shrug saying “ah well have you heard about that campaign, they seem to be doing some sort of good”. None of us are perfect, we make mistakes. I for one buy things I am aware as unethical. We all have weaknesses, but what makes me upset as an unwillingness to think about our choices. By letting others make them for us on such a lowly subconscious manipulative basis, we cannot make progress. Yes, it is good that Unilever are making stides to be a more ethical company, but it is important to question why. Are they responding to international consumer pressure or are they taking advantage of the growing trends of consumer desire, pre-emptively. Is it an honest move, or a gambit to which we will fall for and then hide from like Kony? And will it happen to us, again and again?
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