Upheavals

Voting with chocolate

Cadbury’s decision to stop using palm oil in its dairy milk chocolate points to far more than just the ability of public opinion to sway an international brand. What’s significant here is the reason people were up in arms - their view that using palm oil instead of cocoa butter constituted an environmental slip-up on the part of Cadbury’s that warranted direct action.

Cadbury’s reassurances that they were using sustainably sourced palm oil fell on deaf ears.

This is a classic example of an emerging sentiment amongst consumers that is seeing more and more people asking questions about what they buy - questions that extend beyond even traceability. The implication Cadbury faced was that by using palm oil - any palm oil, regardless of its source - in their products, the confectioners were at least tacitly approving the deforestation of rainforests across Asia. That made consuming their products environmentally unacceptable.

As a result of their decision, Cadbury single-handedly and very swiftly transformed their chocolate from a pleasure into a conscience vote.

The implication of this rings far beyond that sector, perhaps beyond FMCG. Producers are on notice. In a new twist on perception, now it’s not so much what you make, or even how you make it, that matters - it’s what buying your products is seen to condone.

UPDATE: Cadbury has just announced that it will make the move to become Fairtrade-certified for its Dairy Milk brand by Easter 2010. The move, and the acclaim it has received, shows two things. The first is that not only can a clever brand recover from an outcry, it can actually recover well if it thinks through what was upsetting people and responds intelligently. Secondly, it is a very good example of how multinationals can step up and take the lead when their sectors politicise - by instigating an idea that actually reinforces preference for their product based on conscience. Well done, Cadbury.

POSTED: Tuesday, 18 August 2009

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