This week Greenpeace had the honor of being nominated for a Business Ethics Network “BENNY” Award for the 2011 “Barbaric” campaign, in which we shined the spotlight on Mattel, the world’s largest toymaker and told the world about how Mattel’s throw-away packaging was driving the destruction of rainforests and eliminating the habitat of the critically endangered Sumatran tiger.
You can vote for us here- voting ends September 30, 2012.
As you may recall, in June of 2011, the Greenpeace investigation Toying with Extinction exposed how toy industry leaders like Mattel, Hasbro and Lego were sourcing throw-away toy packaging from Indonesian rainforest. Our video showing Ken breaking up with Barbie over her “deforestation habit” was viewed over 1 million times in a matter of days and Mattel received over 250,000 emails from activists all over the world urging the company to stop destroying tiger habitat for its packaging.
Within months after “Barbie” appeared at Mattel’s headquarters in a pink bulldozer and activists, dressed as Ken, draped banners over the buildings, Mattel,as well as other leaders in the toy sector, Lego and Hasbro moved to introduce forest-friendly policies for their packaging. Mattel, Lego, and Hasbro (as well as numerous other companies) have abandoned rainforest-destroying paper suppliers, nonetheless this fight isn’t yet over others like KFC and its parent company YUM! brands have kept their heads in the sand.
You can find the ballot here on the Business Ethics Network web site.
