Expanding Environmental Campaigns

For our next blog we were told to discuss a current environmental campaign using digital technologies.

I chose to discuss Greenpeace UK’s current campaign against Head & Shoulders shampoo and conditioner, which recently revealed that it buys palm oil from companies causing the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests.

 The effects of digital technology allow protectionist campaigns to utilize a wide array of tools that can be used to make sure that their voices are heard by the bigger, massive corporations such as Head & Shoulders and to spread their message across to the public. For example, upon visiting the Greenpeace UK homepage your attention is struck with a somewhat disturbing image of a person’s scalp bearing on one half of their head;  a rich and dense rainforest filled with wildlife, then on the other half there is a bulldozer surrounded by stacks of bark from chopped down trees.  Clicking on this image takes you to a new page where you can write an email to one of the managers at the Head & Shoulders corporation, allowing you to ‘attack’ them directly with your own personal thoughts and feelings. The page has a template for your email, encouraging you to use the subject line ‘I'd rather have dandruff than deforestation’, an effective slogan which is likely flooding the managers inbox as of now.

Another page on the site takes you to a short animation of the image already discussed. The animation walks you through a short explanation of the how H&S is damaging the Inodenisa rainforests while the woman uses their shampoo in her hair. The same startling imagery of a destroyed rain forest runs across her scalp, which enforces this message that whenever you, yourself use H&S shampoo, you are responsible in having a direct effect on the destruction of rainforests by endorsing their products. After viewing the brief animation you are taken to a pop up to sign a petition to support the campaign, alongside a tally of the total signatures that they have received. At the time I am writing this post the tally currently stands at 297,624, which is a clear demonstration of how effective the use of digital technology is at grasping people’s attention and convincing them to unite in supporting a noble cause. A link to the page I am describing can be found below:

http://dirtysecret.greenpeace.org/en-GB?source=em&subsource=20140307ppem01&utm_source=gpeace&utm_medium=em&utm_campaign=20140307ppem01.

In addition, they have a ‘latest update’ section on their homepage, keeping you informed of all the latest news about the campaign. Further access to information through direct links to their social media pages on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, with more posts of the latest pictures and news. For example, they recently announced on their Twitter page their latest plan of action - to ask the members of H&S how they felt about the destruction of rainforests (the video can be found in the link below). The use of social media sites as a means of supporting environmental campaigns is definitely an effective means of reaching a wide audience, and in turn encourages members of the public to share posts by reposting it on their own social media pages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kbq5DtdrgU&list=UUDYkJZXrR9gv6sQ2FQMeYYw

If you wish to ready any more information about Greenpeace UK or the campaign to save Inodenisa rainforests, feel free to browse the Greenpeace UK website at: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/.

Thanks for reading!