The Greening of Dove, Thanks To Greenpeace

The folks over at Greenpeace are taking credit for convincing Unilever to stop destroying Indonesian rain forests for palm oil and begin buying the key ingredient in its popular Dove soaps only from suppliers who can demonstrate they haven't cut down forests.

Greenpeace's weapon in this battle: an ad campaign that uses parodies of the company's Dove ads encouraging self-esteem in women. Greenpeace's campaign included newspaper ads, fliers, and a video on YouTube.

Greenpeace, known for its activists demonstrations, used some traditional techniques as well: having Greenpeace activists dress up like orangutans and climb onto a roof at the company's headquarters in central London.

From The Wall Street Journal:

The speed of the campaign marks a big moment for activist groups. One Greenpeace ad has been watched more than 250,000 times in the week it has been on YouTube.com. Just as the world's biggest marketers have used such Internet sites to get their video ads to consumers, pressure groups are now using the technique to cheaply and quickly spread their message. Type "Dove" in YouTube's search engine and Greenpeace's ad is the first video to appear.

Greenpeace claimed credit for the change in Unilever policy, but a Unilever spokesman said the Greenpeace protests "had some bearing" but little influence on Unilever's decision to source palm oil. He said the company's policy has been in the works since November.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Big corporations are frequently targeted by environmental and other groups criticizing their behavior or that of their suppliers. In recent years the groups have become more sophisticated with marketing techniques to win public support. WWF, a global environmental group, has run newspaper advertisements targeting companies like Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

WWF chief spokesman David Cowdrey said Thursday that Greenpeace deserves some of the credit for Unilever's decision. "I am sure it helped but I don't think it was the be all and end all," he said.