As anyone who’s spent some time in the UK would know, one of the odder grocery chains is a retailer called Iceland that basically only sells frozen food.
But this year its Iceland’s Christmas campaign that’s suffered the deep-freeze after it was banned by regulators for being too political.
The ad is decidedly un-Christmasey and tells the story of rainforest deforestation caused by palm oil production.
It was hoped that the advert would improve shoppers’ understanding of the widespread rainforest destruction for palm oil production, which appears in more than 50 per cent of all supermarket products.
The advert would have seen Iceland committing to over £500,000 ($A895,000) of media spend to ensure that it was seen by millions of consumers.
Check out the banned ad below:
Richard Walker, managing director at Iceland said: “Throughout 2018 we have led the retail industry to take action in areas such as rainforest destruction for palm oil and plastic pollution of our oceans. This year we were keen to do something different with our much anticipated Christmas advert. The culmination of our palm oil project is offering our customers the choice of an orangutan friendly Christmas, and we wanted to reflect this in our advertising.
“Whilst our advert sadly never made it to TV screens, we are hopeful that consumers will take to social media to view the film, which raises awareness of an important global issue. Our commitment to help protect the home of orangutans remains extremely close to our hearts. We are proud to be encouraging consumers to make more sustainable choices, even without the support of TV advertising, ahead of the Christmas shopping season.”
