Friday 7th March, London – Today a team of Greenpeace volunteers set up a division lobby at the entrance to Saatchi and Saatchi’s London offices. The advertising agency promote Head & Shoulders shampoo for Procter & Gamble, which buys its palm oil from companies destroying Indonesia’s rainforest. Staff arriving at the office were forced to choose between the ‘protect forests’ entrance and the ‘destroy forests’ entrance to their work place, with the results being tabulated by Greenpeace as a poll of the advertising agency’s views on the matter.
Arriving outside Saatchi’s central London office at 8am, the activists erected a large wooden barricade with two doorways across the main entrance, with one doorway branded ‘protect forests’ and the other ‘destroy forests’. Activists informed staff of Head & Shoulders’ dirty secret, and asked them to take a side.
Richard George, forests campaigner for Greenpeace UK said:
“Saatchi and Saatchi have spent years understanding how the public thinks. They’ll know that P&G’s customers want to wash away dandruff without wiping out tigers. So who better to advise it to break its ties with forest destruction?”
Over the two hours the installation was in place, 211 Saatchi staff entered the building, 163 through the ‘protect forests’ entrance and 48 through the ‘destroy forests’ entrance.
Richard continued:
“From the results of our survey, with 211 Saatchi employees passing through the division lobby and 163 choosing the ‘protect forests’ lobby, it looks as though they’re not really in favour of forest destruction after all. A lot of P&G customers feel the same way. Hopefully Saatchi’s will pass that on to their client.”
Saatchi’s represent Procter & Gamble, the multinational who produce famous brands such as Head & Shoulders, Gillette and Pantene, and buy palm oil from companies wrecking Indonesia’s rainforests to plant oil palm plantations.
ENDS
Contact
Greenpeace UK Press Office – 020 7865 8255
For footage and stills – photo.uk@greenpeace.org / 020 7865 8294
Notes
Greenpeace’s new P&G campaign video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NbsVwzTb_A
A media briefing on P&G’s dirty secret is available here:
More detail of how P&G’s products are fuelling the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests can be found in Greenpeace’s License to Kill report: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/forests/2013/LicenceToKill_ENG_LOWRES.pdfWith
