Global NGO campaign targets relationship with controversial palm oil supplier

# I. 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.

Sinar Mas suffered financial losses and its reputation was widely affected when the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) began investigating the company.

# II. Consequences for Nestlé

Within a few months, the Greenpeace video had been viewed over 1.5 million times and prompted 200,000 emails of protest against Nestlé. Nestlé dropped Sinar Mas as a supplier and subsequently partnered with the NGO The Forest Trust to “focus on the systematic identification and exclusion of companies owning or managing high risk plantations or farms linked to deforestation.”

Deforestation related with the palm oil supply chain continues to remain a very controversial topic for many food and personal care producers. In March 2016, Greenpeace released a survey “Cutting Deforestation Out of the Palm Oil Supply Chain” which ranked 14 major consumer good manufacturers for their responsible sourcing practices. The report ranked Nestlé as being “on track” to ending deforestation in its supply chain.