“Barbie, it's over.” So began the break-up between Barbie and Ken, engineered by Greenpeace to pressure toy manufacturer Mattel to stop using wood products from Indonesian rain forests in the packaging of its iconic dolls.
In the first three days of being posted online, more than 700 000 people viewed the spoof video of Ken breaking up with Barbie over her unfriendly tree habits. The video appeared on various countries' Greenpeace sites, as well as on YouTube, and was translated into 18 languages.
Greenpeace had the edge from the beginning, using its social media clout to ambush Mattel before it knew what was happening. After activists began posting critical messages on Barbie's Facebook page, which has 2.2 million followers, Mattel shut down the comment facility and removed any mention of rain forests.
On other social channels, such as Barbie's 53 000-follower-strong Twitter page, there was a similar clampdown on communication. Since last week Wednesday, there hasn't been a single chirp from @BarbieStyle, which usually contains numerous tweets per day.
Greenpeace took the online battle a step further by getting tuxedo-clad Ken lookalikes to scale Mattel's 15-storey headquarters and hang a giant banner from the roof, featuring a frowning Ken and a petulant “I don't date girls that are into deforestation”.
Greenpeace's major complaint relates to Mattel (and other toy companies) using wood products from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), a subsidiary of larger group Sinar Mas, which has cut down millions of acres of rain forest home to endangered species such as orang-utans and tigers.
In a case of environmental CSI, Greenpeace conducted forensic investigations into several toy companies' packaging, and discovered they contain a type of tropical hardwood mix found in Indonesian rain forests. Only APP and one other company produce mixed tropical hardwood pulp.
Further sleuthing unearthed contracts and licensing documents, and commercial ties between various companies that linked APP to Mattel and its suppliers.
And so, Greenpeace was able to trace the forests of Indonesia to packaging of toys on sale in shops the world over.
Lego, Disney and Hasbro were also identified as packaging perpetrators, but Greenpeace says it decided to focus on Mattel because “it is the biggest and most influential company”.
While you were sleeping
Greenpeace has never been one to pull its punches, so the video contains the usual shock tactics (Ken being splattered with animals' blood, some high-pitched cursing), but there's no doubt it gets results.
The organisation has run similar campaigns against Tesco, Unilever, Kraft, and Nestle, the latter being targeted in a video of someone opening a Kit Kat to find a bloody orang-utan finger. The companies consequently said they planned to implement policies for pulp and paper, which would exclude products from APP, unless the company made substantial changes to the sourcing of its fibre supplies.
Two days after Greenpeace began its campaign, Mattel got suppliers to put a freeze on purchases from APP and pledged to create a sustainable procurement policy for all its product lines. But Greenpeace says it won't be satisfied until the policy actually materialises.
The concession from Mattel marks a tremendous shift in the way corporates behave and communicate. Gone are the days when a major company could plug potential leaks with payoffs or media pressure. Once released into the online realm, there's little companies can do to stem the spread of news about their activities - and the backlash that comes with it.
According to the LA Times, Mattel says it received 83 000 critical e-mails, although Greenpeace reports 200 000 being sent from its servers as of Friday.
This is perhaps the most effective element of Greenpeace's approach. The environmental group never stops at just stirring up public awareness and outrage. It provides people with easy, accessible ways to take action. On Greenpeace's Facebook page, for example, concerned followers can “Unlike Barbie”, get an “angry Ken” profile pic, or send an e-mail to Mattel CEO Bob Eckert.
By using these familiar tools, Greenpeace makes what could seem like a distant issue in a distant land, a topic that affects people here and now, and enables them to do something about it, here and now. It makes things personal.
In a sense, Greenpeace does well what corporations often do so poorly: it communicates complicated information clearly and invites the public to get involved, turning millions of link-clickers into online activists. Its sites contain a wealth of resources and frequent updates, keeping apace with the modern appetite for meaningful content. Mattel, meanwhile, has used the supply chain system to distance itself from the forest-destroying products it uses to wrap its play time companions, and silenced its online communication channels.
Reinventing appeal
The campaign demonstrates how a social media savvy NGO can turn the tables on a commercial entity as massive as the Barbie brand, all through the use of shrewd strategies and timing.
Even more importantly, it addresses a long-time conundrum for charitable organisations - how to reinvigorate a topic it's been campaigning about for years, that people have heard countless times before.
Greenpeace has taken a tired fight - the one against deforestation - and dressed it up as a Hollywood soap opera, complete with the icons of toy glam, Barbie and Ken.
A social media savvy NGO can turn the tables on a commercial entity as massive as the Barbie brand.
Lezette Engelbrecht, online features editor, ITWeb
Playing by the new rules of social engagement allows Greenpeace to break through compassion fatigue and reach out to people who would never normally have cared about environmental injustices. Compare the headline 'Environmental group urges toy producer to stop deforestation' with 'Ken breaks up with Barbie over rainforest killings'. This is a group that knows its audience.
Nevertheless, behind the slick digital campaign lies a serious and growing threat. Southeast Asia is one of the regions most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, yet its forests keep being cleared to feed the global demand for oil palm, pulp and paper. Since 1950, over 74 million hectares of Indonesia's rainforests have been completely destroyed, and others seriously degraded.
Apart from being a haven for biodiversity, rain forests are huge carbon stores, which makes their destruction doubly worrying. One, clearing and burning forests releases tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming; and two, it reduces the area of forest available to absorb CO2.
Companies like Mattel have long relied on outsourcing to keep their heads in the sand about what's truly happening and retain a facade of corporate responsibility. It's been shifting the blame onto suppliers for years, hoping customers wouldn't ask too many questions. But the muscle and global reach of social media has created a new order. Knowledge is power, and with the help of socially-connected activist groups, both are increasingly in the hands of millions of consumers.
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