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Greenpeace Breaks Up Ken and Barbie, Rappels Down Side of Mattel HQ to Save Indonesian Rainforests
I have no idea if they are correct or not, but I am definitely impressed with the creativity, animation, directing skills and rappelling ability of the people from Greenpeace who are protesting toy maker Mattel Inc.'s use of wood products obtained from Asia Pulp & Paper, a Singapore company. Greenpeace says that AP&P clear-cuts Indonesian rainforests and destroys endangered tiger habitats.
Greenpeace launched its campaign against Mattel last week with this video featuring Ken, from Ken and Barbie. Check it out:
But that was hardly the end of Greenpeace's efforts. Last week, things got even crazier at Mattel headquarters, when Greenpeace activists somehow managed to rappel down the side of Mattel's own headquarters building to hang a massive banner announcing that Ken was breaking up with Barbie due to her deforestation habits. An actress playing Deforestation Barbie then rolled up in a pink "Dream Dozer," and was promptly arrested. Watch last week's craziness at Mattel headquarters here:
Consumerist reports that Mattel's initial response was to attack Greenpeace's actions as "inflammatory," disable comments on Barbie's Facebook wall, and attempt to shut down on trademark grounds Greenpeace's Facebook ad campaign about the breakup. But the next day, the Los Angeles Times reports, Mattel announced that "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."
Even this statement did not satisfy Greenpeace, however. Its "senior forest campaigner" stated that while it was good that Mattel had "realized it has a major deforestation problem," it still lacked a comprehensive policy to deal with the issue. He said Mattel should remove APP from its supply chain and announce a deadline for cutting off the supplier. APP stated that it was "confident Mattel's investigation will show that our packaging materials are more than 95% recycled paper sourced from around the world."
Posted by Bruce Carton on June 17, 2011 at 04:14 PM | Permalink
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