Greenpeace Stops Killer Nestle?

 “Killer Kit Kat”, “Killer Nestle”, and “Give Arang-utang a break” are catchy phrases that have spread like wild fires across the internet after Nestle demanded that YouTube remove an alarming video of a man eating an orangutan finger after opening up a Kit Kat candy bar.  This video, posted by Greenpeace, spurred a social media crisis for Nestle.  Greenpeace claims that Nestle S.A. is contributing to the deaths of an endangered species and the deforestation in Malaysia.  This is because one of their suppliers of palm oil is extracting it unconventionally.

Nestlé’s ‘hush’ tactic of forcing the removal of video was their first mistake in handling their social media crisis, says Mario Sgambelluri, i-Media Connection Blog Reporter.  This strategy was unsuccessful in silencing Greenpeace from making its claims known to the world.  Greenpeace chose other online platforms to spread its accusations. They reposted the video on Vimeao.  Greenpeace used Facebook and Twitter to alert their supporters that their video was removed from YouTube and to keep the discussion going regarding their concerns with Nestlé’s practices in Asia. Greenpeace created a micro website that housed all of these reports, claims, research, a tweaked Kit Kat logo, and of course the controversial video.

As a result of Greenpeace changing its homepage to reflect the altered Kit Kat logo, postings on Facebook and Twitter urging its supporters to stop Nestle from destroying rainforests for palm oil, some Facebook users took it upon themselves to change their profile pictures to the mock-up logo which reads, “Nestle Killer” instead of Kit Kat. Greenpeace supporters also posted comments on Nestle’s Facebook page encouraging them to stop killing the rainforests and endagered animals.

The Nestle palm oil scandal is an example of an organization trying to resolve a crisis.  And in this case, Nestle was facing a severe social media crisis.  In my opinion, one can only handle crisis or image management when a crisis arises.  But I do feel that crisis management is a small function of image management, because how an organization handles a problem will determine how the public and consumers view the organization.