It’s a social media showdown between Greenpeace, one of the world’s most influential environmental groups and toy manufacturing giant Mattel. Greenpeace is after Mattel for the latter’s alleged use of packaging that came from the rainforests of Indonesia. The packaging was said to be used for Mattel’s famous Barbie and Ken dolls. This week, Greenpeace showed a spoof video on its websites as well as on YouTube. The video shows Ken breaking up with Barbie because of the destruction of the rainforest. More than 180,000 people viewed the video, which was translated into 18 languages.
Greenpeace is making good use of social media to condemn Mattel on the rainforest issue. Aside from the video, it uses Facebook and Twitter to disseminate campaign information to its visitors. Greenpeace invaded the Facebook fan page of Barbie as well, posting negative messages that can be viewed by Mattel’s more than 2 million followers. The group had also unveiled a huge banner from the roof of the headquarters of Mattel.
Mattel responded by disabling commenting on the Barbie page. The company released a statement, which says, “Playing responsibly has long been an important part of Mattel’s business practices.” It criticized the environmental group’s approach to its campaigns.
Greenpeace is accusing Mattel of using wood products that came from Asia Pulp & Paper. Mattel responded directly by posting on its Facebook page, saying, “Mattel does not support deforestation nor does it contract directly with Sinar Mas/APP. We purchase packaging materials from a variety of suppliers and it is not the normal course of business to dictate where suppliers source materials. That said, we have directed our packaging suppliers to stop sourcing pulp from Sinar Mas/APP as we investigate the deforestation allegations. Additionally, we have asked our packaging suppliers to clarify how they are addressing the broader issue in their own supply chains.”
However, Greenpeace is showing no signs of letting up, as its China office is planning to send an email to its millions of followers. The environmental group does not intend to stop with its campaign against Mattel until the toy giant exhibits “due diligence“over the deforestation issue.
Image source: wikinoticia.com
