Video - The New George Clooney Nespresso Ad… Sort Of

The petition text:

Dear George,
... you campaign as a UN ambassador as well as a champion of peace and justice. That is truly fantastic. But promoting a company that does nothing to stop the exploitation of coffee pickers is really not right.
I would therefore like to ask you make Nestlé choose:
either fair trade coffee or no more George Clooney in the Nespresso commercials.

By Emilie Brouzes | journalism student | 05/09/2011 |

Fair trade coffee, or more than "What else". It is the threat that George Clooney should hold up under the nose of Nestlé, pleads NGO Solidar Switzerland . Parodied in a spot of Nespresso, a dead ringer for the actor out of a coffee shop, avoids a grand piano but is taught in the crotch. As he is dying, the voice mocked : "Sorry George, but a coffee picker operated feels the same way as you. " (See video)

To disseminate their news, Solidar Switzerland outsources media relations at a communications company, Aktuell. This contact an international agency, Newswire , to relay information to the French media. Except at the last minute, says Alexandre Mariéthoz, spokesman for the NGO, he objects to it:

The agency believes that the spot" the multinational Nestlé accused of unethical practices. " For this and "because the name of George Clooney is used for negative, "they would not broadcast the news. It was damn surprised: it's obvious that it's humor, of course, we want nothing happens to the actor. "Dear George, I beg you to put a clear choice Nestlé"

Meanwhile, the video buzz. Since it went online Sunday afternoon, nearly 7500 Internet users have sent this message to the actor, through a form:

"Dear George, as a Goodwill Ambassador to the UN, you commit yourself to a more just world. It's great! So you are certainly troubled by the inaction of Nestlé against the exploitation of coffee pickers and collectors. Therefore I beg you to put Nestlé before a clear choice: fair trade coffee or never advertise with Nespresso George Clooney. "

By a reaction Facebook , Nespresso invited Solidar Switzerland on Monday to discuss and present their grievances. The NGO noted . It has many back to "George" signatures by mail or at its next arrival in Europe.

Link to media article about ad

fluffy wrote:But if George is in the commercial, then surely he is saying I understand that plight?? Why else would he be impaled by a sign, if it weren't a sign, if you see what I mean??! I thought all coffee was sustainable these days just like the wood?? That video a while ago where Gee was on site picking, was that Nespresso??

Cinderella wrote:I really don’t know what to say about this… If George is under contract with Nespresso there’s really nothing he can do about it, at this time. I’m certain, after being enlightened of this situation; he will do his research and find out the truth on his own. I feel some people push their agendas… agendas we are not savvy to… to further other aspects we are not savvy to. But this definitely will make him research the situation. If so, I would imagine he (after research) or Nespresso will make a statement.

Economics

Transnational corporations such as Procter & Gamble’s Folgers, McDonald’s, and Starbucks now sell Fair Trade coffee, using their large consumer base and strong advertising campaigns to bring in Fair Trade consumers. Fair Trade activists[who?] are now concerned that the morally driven small Fair-Trade-oriented businesses are going to be pushed out of their original customer market.

When large corporations sell Fair Trade coffee, consumers are easily brought to the larger, well known companies for their Fair Trade coffee. This takes out the small coffee shops’ edge of selling consumer-oriented, special coffees like Fair Trade coffee and continues the success of big businesses in the coffee industry. As a result of Fair Trade’s elimination of the middle man, numerous jobs are removed from the market without the guarantee of finding another.[citation needed]

Ethics

Critics believe the Fair Trade certification is abused by marking up retail prices significantly, while only providing the growers with marginally higher prices. When large corporations like Wal-Mart can afford to sell Fair Trade coffee, and choose to do so as an economic decision for profit, many consumers see the gap between large corporations supporting Fair Trade coffee growers in other countries but in the meantime the same corporations do not pay their workers wages similar to their profits and often put smaller, local business owners out of work. Some smaller sellers of Fair Trade coffee, who sell Fair Trade coffee as more than an economic decision are losing their Fair Trade market to these larger companies and many have suggested that TransFair USA come up with a tiered labeling system so as to show that these small business owners are truly committed to Fair Trade and aren’t making the same larger profits off of the Fair Trade label that the large corporations can.

Another criticism is that the per-pound price for Fair Trade coffee is that of the 1990 International Coffee Organization price, which is only moderately above the cost of production. Fair Trade farmers make $0.20-$0.30 per pound of coffee they grow and sell and as a result do not make much profit off of Fair Trade like the final sellers do. While some argue that Fair Trade pushes under-empowered growers into forming cooperatives, creating islands of democracy in often autocratic regimes, others challenge the assumption that encouraging farmers to form cooperatives is a good idea. This is because co-ops can be just as corrupt as any other organization. In a system meant to eliminate middlemen that pitches itself as a direct connection to growers, co-ops add a level of bureaucracy between consumer and producer. The farmer doesn’t directly receive the $1.26 but instead receives whatever portion the co-op decides. Therefore, a corruptly managed co-op can mask the real price of coffees from individual farmers and turn a profit greater than that of the farmers themselves.

"We have been committed to responsible coffee sourcing and we intend to defend Nespresso's integrity and reputation."