by Thomas Gomersall
Regular visitors to this website may remember that a few months ago, we discussed an animated short film produced by Greenpeace and narrated by Emma Thompson about the plight of orangutans (See ‘A Great Actress for the Great Apes’).
Well it turns out we weren’t the only ones paying attention. British food retailer, Iceland, who committed to going palm oil free by the end of this year, had planned to air the video on television as part of its Christmas advertising. Unfortunately, Clearcast, a non-governmental body that approves advertisements before they go on air, has banned the video from being released on the grounds of it violating laws against British advertisements containing political material.
This ban is nonsensical and an enormous disservice to a species as critically endangered as the orangutan. Not only because they cannot afford to have any conservation messages censored like this, but also because of the bad message this ban sends about environmental responsibility. While many organisations like Iceland have committed to cutting palm oil from their products, plenty of others such as Colgate, Subway and Nestle are severely lagging behind. Punishing Iceland for trying to take a stand for conservation is unlikely to persuade others to do the same.
In response to this ban, an online petition has taken off to overturn it. Currently it has amassed 680,000 signatures and gained support from everyone from talk show host James Corden to UK environment secretary Michael Gove. Please sign it and help Iceland to get this vitally important conservation message out.
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQXstNh45g
Link to petition: https://www.change.org/p/release-iceland-s-banned-christmas-advert-on-tv-nopalmoilchristmas
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