WWF has gone cinematic to raise concerns of non-sustainable palm oil production that is destructive to tropical rainforests and wild animals. The new campaign, Unseen the Movie, calls people to see the real damage caused by unethical palm oil sourcing and do something to stop being part of the consumption system that stays blind to this issue. The centerpiece of the effort is a 2:40 film disguised as a thriller movie trailer, narrating a story of Jack Crawford who one day realizes the danger.
The video follows the protagonist that leads a “normal life,” buys products containing palm oil, but doesn’t even think if this oil is manufactured in a sustainable way. But one day everything changes for him—he doesn’t want to contribute to devastation of the planet, and wants to make conscious decisions as a consumer.
To inform shoppers on ethically sourced palm oil products, WWF has also launched a dedicated website, where users may discover why exactly non-sustainable palm oil sourcing is bad and how the situation can be improved by bigger corporations. It also features every-day products (not particular brands, just categories) which have palm oil as one of their ingredients.
WWF has also published the 3d annual Palm Oil Buyers Scorecard in-depth research that scored and ranked 130 retailers and consumer goods manufacturers from 14 countries, revealing how sustainable their palm oil usage is. IKEA and REWE Group in retailers and food service companies, and Ecover, Ferrero Trading, Unilever and United Biscuits in manufacturers and processors/traders scored max. 12. Consumers can influence the better practices in two ways—by purchasing goods from companies with a high score and tweeting to the corporations, either with a message of support or the words of disrespect.
The 140 companies from the list, along with their score, can be found on the page of the effort—a plethora of ready-to-tweet encouragements are provided for each of the companies (the tone of the note depends on the company’s performance). Here’s a couple of examples: “@UnitedBiscuits, well done on your @WWF scorecard result. Will you go one step further with a greenhouse gas policy? #sustainablepalmoil” and “@Target, I don’t want products I buy to hurt the environment. It’s time you commit to #sustainablepalmoil panda.org/poscore.”