Cycling UK Forum

What do people think about this....

The supermarket chain Iceland has pledged to remove palm oil from its entire range of products by the end of this year and was due to run a Christmas TV ad campaign highlighting the devastation caused by palm oil production.

Now that advert will not be screened because some government organisation has deemed it too political

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... oil-banned

https://youtu.be/JdpspllWI2o

Not a government organisation, and it is political according to the comma act 2013 - this isn’t defined as party political...

It’s actually a Greenpeace advert.


And it hasn’t been banned...

I wish I could shop at Iceland. We managed well enough a few decades ago without palm oil

I would never have learned of the ad had it not been banned

Is it still a Greenpeace advert now that all their branding has been removed?

What's the Comma Act 2013?

Not a government organisation, and it is political according to the comma act 2013 - this isn’t defined as party political...

It’s actually a Greenpeace advert.

Here is last years advert from the WWF (which was allowed to be screened) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb6sYToyQh8

Interesting that Greenpeace is seen as 'political' and the WWF is not.....seems like someone from the regulator has some explaining to do especially a there was no reference to Greenpeace in the advert

I'm not sure whether it's Clearcast (the old ASA I assume) having scored a monumental own-goal here, or whether it's Iceland pulling off a brilliant coup - but this advert has now got the nationwide exposure it would never have attained as a mere TV ad (how many of us - those who still watch TV that is - dart out to make the tea as soon as the commercials come on?)

I'd like to think that this is a commendable move in the right direction by Iceland, although I have seen it said that many other of their products (cosmetics etc.) will still contain palm oil. And I freely admit that my favourite brand of shaving cream is Palmolive - which is presumably derived from palm oil. You can't win!

I suppose the best we can hope for is a sustainable level of palm oil production to satisfy existing needs, without expanding the market. Because it's when markets expand that rainforests get chopped down...

Just been checking - it seems I got something wrong above: Clearcast is not the successor to ASA (which still exists). It appears to be a self-regulating body owned by the TV companies.

Vast areas of forest are being cleared to produce palm oil for export to the west, an awful example of globalisation and distortions and destruction and use of resources and energy, it's the economy stupid

We did well enough without it before

One wonders what products we export back to the countries producing palm oil. Millions of tubs of lard, I'll be bound
Solution for 661-Pete: stop shaving

Cyril Haearn wrote:I wish I could shop at Iceland. We managed well enough a few decades ago without palm oil

I would never have learned of the ad had it not been banned

Oh it was used decades ok in the seventies when I worked in refrigeration Salvesens used it in the fryer on the frozen chip lineas did their closely allied company PAS - now Mccain. Thousands of gallons of the stuff. Sometimes the fryer caught fire - that was fun.

I just wish the government would make the simple decisions for us, regulate palm oil, control recycling from the production end, not the waste end, they could easily stipulate what materials are allowed in packaging to make everything more easily recyclable, or even have everything come in returnable, re-usable packaging. A good start would be just going through the products in a supermarket and put pressure on, or name and shame the products with wasteful packaging.

It will be interesting to see whether the simplicity of shopping at Iceland for their own brand products in the knowledge nothing will contain palm oil has any effect on whether people switch to their own brand products and whether more people shop there.

Also, perhaps this advert will cause pressure on other shops and on companies who use palm oil to find alternatives.

Postboxer wrote: A good start would be just going through the products in a supermarket and put pressure on, or name and shame the products with wasteful packaging.

ALDI ... prolific user of palm oil in its product range, massively over packaged products.
All variants of Peanut Butter contain palm oil, own brand "Nutella" .. guess what ... palm oil ... and on and on...
Pain au Chocolate .. individually wrapped in clear plastic, in a clear plastic tray, in a clear plastic wrapper ....... WHY !!!