KitKat's Killing Orang-utans

All the over the news recently, it has been reported that one of the nation's favourite chocolaty, break-time treats may have a hidden dark side. The biscuits - KitKat's - are made by Nestle in York and it is said that about 1 billion are sold in the UK every year. However, it came out in the news this week that due to the methods of obtaining certain ingredients for this product, rainforests are being destroyed and in turn many Orang-utans are losing their habitats.

According to animal campaigners, Nestle is buying palm oil, one of the main ingredients in KitKat's, from a company that clears the Indonesian rainforest, forcing Orang-utans out of their natural habitat.

Greenpeace protesters have been out in force and have taken their message to the Nestle's headquarters. They were all dressed in Orang-utan fancy dress costumes, carrying placards with the words "Give me a break" and "Killer" printed in the brand's famous red and white. They have also produced a short advert playing on KitKat's synonymous slogan "Have a break. Have a Kitkat"; Greenpeace have changed the slogan to "Have a break. Give the Orang-utan a break". The video shows an office worker opening a KitKat, then biting into what looks like a chocolate-covered ape finger, which in turn begin oozing blood as he bites into it. This advertisement is extremely smart and powerful, it really does get the message across to it's viewers quickly. I also find it quite hard hitting as the blood and the effects are so realistic looking.

Since this extreme exposure to the Greenpeace campaign Nestle have tried to have the video removed from sites such as YouTube and later released a statement to say that they had replaced the Indonesian company that they were using, Sinar Mas, as their palm oil supplier and "will continue to pressure" suppliers to eliminate sources of oil that contributes to rainforest destruction.

However, this simply goes to show that you just don't know what adverse effects are being caused by the production of such non-necessity items that we humans buy. I have to admit that I am among those 1 billion sales of KitKat's but after watching and reading about this, I have been put off the company Nestle and I feel that although they have changed their ways, it shouldn't have taken a huge display of publicity for them to clean up their act. How did they not know what effects they were causing on rainforests and Orang-utans? Did they know and just didn't care? Are they simply changing their ways to stop their customers from leaving them? Some of these answers I will never know but I can safely say that my estimations and values of such a large brand and company have been extremely lowered.