This Tv Ad Exposing Palm Oil Industry Has Been Banned From TV

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By Amanda Froelich

The holiday season has arrived, and you know what that means. Right now, consumers are the busiest they’ve been all year, searching for products to purchase, wrap and gift to others. Unfortunately, most shoppers aren’t aware that hundreds of items they might be purchasing contain the ingredient palm oil, which is devastating the environment and kills approximately 25 orangutans each day.

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To highlight the lesser-known truth about this commonly-used ingredient, the UK Supermarket Iceland decided to partner with Greenpeace for a festive holiday campaign. Though the story is beautiful, it was pulled for being “too political” because it highlights the consequences of the palm oil industry. We’ll let you decide if it should have been aired or not. 

The animated advertisement stars a girl and an orangutan. After being asked to leave, the orangutan explains how its mother was killed and its habitat destroyed in the pursuit of palm oil. “There’s a human in my forest and I don’t know what to do,” the orangutan says in the video. “He destroyed all of our trees for your food and your shampoo.”

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IFLScience reports that the advertisement was produced after Iceland said it would remove palm oil from all of its own-brand foods. This made it the first UK supermarket (grocery store chain) to do so. But, according to a statement by the vetting organization Clearcast, which clears ads on behalf of the four major UK commercial broadcasters, the advert is in breach of the 2003 Communications advert. The statement reads adverts cannot be “directed towards a political end” as part of the broadcast code for advertising practice (BCAP).

Because the advertisement won’t be viewed on TV this year, the company wrote on Twitter: “You won’t see our Christmas advert on TV this year, because it was banned. But we want to share Rang-tan’s story with you… Will you help us share the story?”

According to Iceland Foods founder Malcolm Walker, Clearcast approved the ad only if the Greenpeace logo was removed. “It would have blown the John Lewis ad out of the window. It was so emotional,” said Walker.

Perhaps it was best that the ad was pulled. As spectators have pointed out, the video has received more than 3 million views on YouTube. Clearly, it caught the public’s attention — and, wasn’t that the point?

What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this news!

Source: IFLScience

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