I was wandering around Rollercoaster today, you remember them, the Irish forum that had their mums2be area sponsored by SMA and that frequently hosts dubious formula ads, like the Cow & Gate ones in their breastfeeding forum last year? Why do I still wander around it then? Well, a huge amount of Irish women use it and their breastfeeding forum is very busy and full of questions, so rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater (so to speak) I still visit, but I keep lodging complaints whenever I find stuff!
Anyhoo, today I noticed that their parenting section is now sponsored by Nestlé. Hmm. We’ve been boycotting Nestlé here since forever (well since college) so I do get a little jolt when I see their name on parenting sites, I mean you just tend to presume that everyone is boycotting them. Obviously not.
Not only are Nestlé sponsoring the parenting section, but they also have a “ask the Nestlé nutritionist” section and stuff like that. Interesting. Did you know Nestlé are planning on expanding their range of infant formula in the UK soon? Interesting!
But another thing I noticed was a big banner ad linking to the ISPCC’s website, so I wandered over for a look. And here’s what I found… Nestle are sponsoring the “Cheerios Childline Breakfast Together Week” on the 6-12th October. Wow, the same week as International Nestle Free Week, funny coincidence eh?
Setting aside that coincidental coincidence, and setting aside the fact that Cheerios are chock full of sugar and salt and inappropriately marketed at children, this is a sad (and very familiar) situation we are looking at.
Childline is woefully underfunded, last year they could only answer 47% of the over 630,000 calls they received. They are aiming for a 100% answer rate by 2011. But the fact is the ISPCC isn’t well funded, over 90% of their funding is raised through the public.
And they have corporate sponsors, one of whom is Nestlé.
Nestlé donates over 100K to the ISPCC annually, small change to Nestlé but absolutely crucial to the ISPCC. And for that small donation, Nestlé gets so much more…
Sponsoring the ISPCC will benefit your company in the following ways:
- Bring a positive image to your company by addressing specific objectives
- Help you reach an intended target audience
- Increase your brand awareness
- Motivate your staff
- Show your company’s commitment to the local community
This is followed on the same page by a little heartwarming blurb from Nestlé:
“…Cheerios and Childline are a natural fit and we are delighted to be associated with such a vital service for Irish children”.
We can see that they’re getting priceless consumer goodwill, warm and fuzzy feelings about their benevolence, brand recognition, the list goes on. Childline & the ISPCC are charities that everyone in Ireland will give money to when they are collecting on the streets, it breaks your heart to hear of all those calls going unanswered, all those children not getting the help they need.
So in that regard, it’s great that the ISPCC is getting 100K from Nestlé, better in their pockets than in Nestlé’s.
But at the same time, it stinks. It stinks that Nestlé is just flinging cash around to improve its image, Baby Milk Action have noted that Nestlé tends to approach children’s charities in order to divert criticism away from its formula marketing practices. It stinks that the ISPCC is in a situation where it needs to get into bed with such unethical companies. And it stinks that it’s not something that is likely to change.
If the ISPCC said “no” to Nestlé, then Nestlé would just find some other charity to stick its logo on, but the ISPCC would lose 100K a year, that’s a lot of unanswered phone calls. There’s no real easy answer, and Nestlé knows that, and preys on that and puts charities in the unenviable position of having to choose between dirty money or no money. It’s not right. And it’s happening everywhere, Nestlé are nothing if not resourceful.
So, if you want to get involved in Cheerio Week, why not organise your own breakfast morning for Childline? You could tie it in with International Nestlé Free Week and have some information there for anyone interested in learning about the boycott. Perhaps send a letter with your donation letting the ISPCC know that you still support them but have issues with their bedfellows.
And if you don’t already boycott Nestle or feel that boycotting is pointless, or if you have a weakness for Nescafé, a fondness for Smarties or a love of Rolos, please take a few minutes to read up on why people are boycotting Nestlé, and think about doing the same, even if it’s only for one week. Be the change you wish to see in the world!
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Is there a list somewhere of Nestle companies/products? I do my best to avoid them, but sometimes they come disguised as other companies (iykwim).
@ Inanna Mama, they own almost everything that Proctor & Gamble don’t own, it can be very frustrating! They part-own L’Oreal so The Body Shop is now included in the Nestle boycott (although it was included in my L’Oreal boycott anyway before I realised L’Oreal was Nestle).
Anyway, http://www.babymilkaction.org/pages/products.html is the place to go for the full list, enjoy!
Thankyou! I’m going to try to find a US list as I don’t recognize many of the products/brands…of course, I do live under a rock
, rarely venturing to mainstream groceries, so perhaps all of these are stocked on American shelves!
The Nestle boycott gets so frustrating sometimes! I was baking for a charity bake sale a few weeks ago, and planned on making butterscotch cookies. However, the only butterscotch chips I could find were Nestle, so I had to skip that. I spent several months hunting for new contact lens solution after Nestle gleefully announced the buyout of my last brand; I’m still not happy with what I have, but it’s the best of the lot. And I still knowingly use cat litter now owned by them, as my oldest cat refuses all others. She’s ancient and not in great health and has had a very rough life, so I willingly buy it; and I allow myself the giggle at the cat pooping on a Nestle product. When she is gone, that will go, too.
It’d just be so much easier if Nestle would grow a corporate heart and COMPLY, already!
So Nestlé pay for counsellors to answer phonecalls to bullied children in this country and Nestlé are resopnsible for the deaths of babies in poor countries.
Sick, eh? And very itchy-scratchy to suggest removing them as a sponsor from the former because of the latter, because yet more children will suffer as a result.
I shall link to this post on my site as you’ve said all I would’ve done and very well too, if that’s OK!
[...] and sponsorship Posted on September 15, 2008 by Jane Half Pint Pixie blogs about the thorny Nestlé issue – expect more sponsorship of fluffy child-friendly events in [...]
@ Pixie L, It is so annoying the way they keep acquiring new companies to add to their empire, the list keeps changing!
@ Jane, Thank you kindly for the link! It is such a hard call to make isn’t it, because either way children are getting hurt! And of course, you can bet that Nestle is relying on that, they know it’s hard for any strapped-for-cash charity to say “no” to 100K!
[...] involved in many high profile sponsorship deals with children’s charities, including the ISPCC in Ireland, [...]