Yes it’s true, Ken has dumped Barbie – he’s upset since he discovered that she’s intent on trashing rainforests and pushing critically-endangered wildlife, like tigers, towards extinction.
I have a hard time saying no. This has always been a problem for me, but has been especially true when it comes to my kids. Which is why we have an annual clean out of toys in our house, and often come across barely touched puzzles and cuddly animals to put in the basket for donating to our local charity bin. But the items that never make it into the basket are Barbies.
As part of Greenpeace’s Barbie campaign to draw attention to Mattel’s use of packaging connected to deforestation in Indonesia Greenpeace USA ran satirical Facebook ads like the one above.
It’s been a busy few days since the latest phase of our campaign to stop deforestation in Indonesia got underway. There are now signs that both Mattel and Lego are preparing to make changes in the way they buy their packaging.
But are other toy companies throwing rainforest destruction out of the pram? When Ken dumped Barbie last month Mattel was not the only toy company put under the spotlight for their role in rainforest destruction. Our investigation showed that Hasbro, Lego and Disney are also wrapping toys in paper products coming from Indonesian rainforests.
The news from Indonesia today that Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) has moved a tiger from one part of South Sumatra province to another in order to protect it.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Steve Nicholson, the corporate affairs director for Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) in Australia and New Zealand. Fresh from a PR crisis in Australia - caused when his staff were found out for anonymously posting offensive comments online about a Greenpeace staff member and APP’s former largest customer in Australia - Steve is trying to play hardball in New Zealand.
The Sumatran tiger is a graceful and prestigious animal. It’s the ‘King of the Jungle’, a symbol of the richness of the forest, and an inspiration in Indonesian culture. To survive in its forest home the tiger has to run fast and have sharp eyes. But now, the Sumatran tiger’s survival is threatened because that forest is being destroyed.