Plant A Tree Co has claimed they are behind the viral “post a photo of your pet, to plant a tree” trend. However, the company allegedly has a history of botching Instagram initiatives in the name of charity!
Basically, millions of people are sharing photos of their pets in the name of getting a tree planted, and yesterday Plant A Tree Co took to Instagram to claim the credit.
In a lengthy post, the company explained that they started the trend but it grew too big and they didn’t have the resources to actually plant millions of trees. The post also claimed the company was no longer credited for the original post because of an Instagram bug.
Plant A Tree Co then directed people to donate to Trees For The Future, so millions of trees could get planted! It all sounds harmless enough.
The post said: “We posted the new “Add Yours” story as a fun tree planting campaign where we can show off our awesome pets!
“We immediately realized the post would grow too big and that we didn’t have the resources to plant that many trees, so we deleted it 10 minutes later. Even though we deleted it, the stories continued to spread out of our control.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWCJp5upX80/
Plant A Tree Co then followed this plea – by asking followers to message the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri and ask him to help the company plant four million trees.
However, not everything is as it seems. According to Odyssey, Plant A Tree Co allegedly has a history of starting viral charity trends and being unable to fulfil its promises.
In a piece titled “Is Plant A Tree Co A Scam?”, Odyssey claims that the company tried a similar plant a tree post in 2019 that has since been deleted. Then the company shared a photo of a Kangaroo during the Australian bushfires in January.
The image went viral and then the company claimed that for every 100 reshares on Instagram, it would donate one dollar to an Australian Fire Services charity.
Interestingly, if you wanted your reshare to be counted towards a possible donation, you had to also be following Plant A Tree Co. An interesting marketing tactic?
It doesn’t even end there, according to Pedestrian, Plant A Tree Co tried the same tactic with the Black Lives Matter movement. Promoting graphics, promising donations and telling people to follow.
The company now has over a million followers on Instagram.
Now, this is where it gets very murky, according to, Fake Website Buster, a website dedicated to deeming if a website is a scam or not, there has never been any proof that the company has donated any money and it does seem to have a history of deleting viral posts.
Fake Website Buster, said: “It is mentioned on the website that they plant a tree through partners for every completed purchase.
“There is no information on who these partners are and neither is there any proof that they have donated towards this cause.
“There is also no evidence that they have donated to organisations that do charity work for the Australian bushfires or the African-American community, as claimed on their Instagram page.”
Basically, if you reposted a photo of your pet hoping to get a tree planted, you may be waiting a while!
