Roisin Conneely
It’s that time of year when Christmas adverts start flooding our screens, each trying to outcompete the other in the contest of who can tug on the heartstrings most, whilst also displaying all their great products and convincing us to shop with them.
But this year we’ve seen something different.
It certainly meets the heartstrings criteria, but instead of trying to sell us something, Iceland appear to be heading a conservation campaign. Now that’s pretty new in the world of Christmas advertising.
The advert, which has been banned from television for being too politically charged, tells the story of a young orangutan who finds herself in a little girl’s bedroom, throwing around her shoes, shampoo, chocolate bars in a fit of rage. The girl asks what the ‘rang tan’ is doing and why, to which she responds, ‘there’s a human in my forest, and I don’t know what to do’.
There’s a human in my forest and I don’t know what to do
You destroyed all of our trees for your food and your shampoo
There’s a human in my forest and I don’t know what to do
He took away my mother and I’m scared he’ll take me too
There are humans in my forest and I don’t know what to do
They’re burning it for palm oil, so I thought’ I’d stay with you
Rang-tan reminds us that the world doesn’t belong to us, the forest is HER forest, and she’s right. We are just one species on this wide Earth, and we have to share it with the millions of other creatures that call it home too. How long will we destroy every habitat we come across and exploit it for our own greed? How long will we cause populations to go extinct at our own hands? How long will we stand by and do nothing about the irreversible changes we’re inflicting on the planet?
Iceland promise to remove palm oil from all their own brand products, which is a refreshing change; to see corporations taking a stand and making changes instead of the consumer being guilt tripped for purchasing the only things that they have access to. Of course, the people do have power, we can recycle, make conscious choices and do our best to help the environment in everyday life, but at the end of the day, it’s big businesses which undoubtedly inflict the greatest impacts on the environment, and its they who should be made accountable and forced to enact positive changes because they have the greatest power to do so.
The story of Rang-tan is a game changer in consumerism and the interplay between customer and company. Of course, it is still to an extent, a publicity stunt, which I’m sure Iceland are hoping will boost their sales, but for a change, it’s a meaningful, positive stunt, which will hopefully bring about a shift in attitude for other businesses and the way they interact with the natural resources they exploit on a daily basis.
You can sign a petition calling for the ban on the advert to be reversed here
Dreaming of a green Christmas: eco-friendly festivities – Seeking Science
[…] Christmas is the season of excess, with most of our houses full to the brim with boxes of chocolates, biscuits, and other delightful treats. As a nation, we throw away 230,000 tonnes of unused Christmas snacks over the holidays. This is an even bigger problem when you consider how much packaging these products typically contain, usually composed primarily of plastic. It’s easy to get caught up in the madness of seasonal supermarket trips and clear the shelves of everything we can get our hands on ‘just in case’, but this Christmas, let’s make an effort to really think about whether we really need 12 packets of mince pies. Make sure to check the ingredients too, and try to avoid unsustainably sourced palm oil, keeping an eye out for the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certificate. Iceland is a good destination for palm-free products, which you can read more about in our article here. […]