RepRisk case study
Nestlé
# Global NGO campaign targets relationship with controversial palm oil supplier
# September 2016
What happened
In spring 2010, Greenpeace launched a highprofile campaign denouncing Nestlé over its sourcing of palm oil from the controversial Indonesian supplier, Sinar Mas. The campaign was rolled out using multimedia components, a social media campaign, and traditional on-theground activism, causing severe damage to the company’s reputation.
In particular, the campaign featured a YouTube parody of Nestlé’s famous “Have a break, Have a Kit Kat” commercial, in which a bored office worker finds himself biting into an orangutan finger as opposed to a Kit Kat bar.
Despite Nestlé’s attempt to censor the video, the campaign went viral, with over 40,000 views on YouTube and over 100,000 views on Vimeo within the first 20 hours. Almost immediately, Nestlé decided to drop Sinar Mas as a supplier to avoid further reputational harm.