Crs Unilever Crimes
Unilever
Corporate Crimes
Promoting Consumerism
Misleading marketing
Market domination
Procter&Gamble and Unilever reach agreement
Pushing the neoliberal agenda and spreading false information
Exploiting -relatively cheap- resources in the Third World
Promoting unsustainable agriculture
Environmental pollution
9. Using consumerism to ‘eradicate’ poverty
Taking public space/barring imagination
Collaboration with oppressive regimes
Hypocritical Health Campaign induced by Self-Interest
Excessive Pay Management
1. Promoting consumerism
Unilever spends a lot of energy and money on marketing and commercialisation of consumer products all over the world (‘Paint the World Yellow’ – the Lipton marketing campaign which provide everything with the Lipton Logo, from surfboards to Chevrolets—was a tremendous success, according to Unilever. It created a much bigger Lipton Logo awareness amongst consumers.) Since the Northern consumer market is saturated (so not much room left for expansion of market shares) Unilever aims at maximising the processing of food, which means adding value to ‘improve’ products and then charge more for these products. Unilever changes the product only slightly (e.g. strawberry toothpaste), or just changes the visual language in order to sell exactly the same product. Naturally this process involves heavy advertising. Many of the ‘improved’ products are basically useless, and there is no demand for them (the demand is being manufactured by the multinationals themselves). In short, Unilever tries to bring as many products as possible to the market without asking itself the question ‘is there a real need for the products we produce?’
Since the majority of people in the South still go hungry every day, there is much more room for growth in these countries. If the income of the poor rises, there is a big change they will spend the money on food products. Unilever is in a unique position to exploit this. They have expanded market
Corporate Crimes
Promoting Consumerism
Misleading marketing
Market domination
Procter&Gamble and Unilever reach agreement
Pushing the neoliberal agenda and spreading false information
Exploiting -relatively cheap- resources in the Third World
Promoting unsustainable agriculture
Environmental pollution
9. Using consumerism to ‘eradicate’ poverty
Taking public space/barring imagination
Collaboration with oppressive regimes
Hypocritical Health Campaign induced by Self-Interest
Excessive Pay Management
1. Promoting consumerism
Unilever spends a lot of energy and money on marketing and commercialisation of consumer products all over the world (‘Paint the World Yellow’ – the Lipton marketing campaign which provide everything with the Lipton Logo, from surfboards to Chevrolets—was a tremendous success, according to Unilever. It created a much bigger Lipton Logo awareness amongst consumers.) Since the Northern consumer market is saturated (so not much room left for expansion of market shares) Unilever aims at maximising the processing of food, which means adding value to ‘improve’ products and then charge more for these products. Unilever changes the product only slightly (e.g. strawberry toothpaste), or just changes the visual language in order to sell exactly the same product. Naturally this process involves heavy advertising. Many of the ‘improved’ products are basically useless, and there is no demand for them (the demand is being manufactured by the multinationals themselves). In short, Unilever tries to bring as many products as possible to the market without asking itself the question ‘is there a real need for the products we produce?’
Since the majority of people in the South still go hungry every day, there is much more room for growth in these countries. If the income of the poor rises, there is a big change they will spend the money on food products. Unilever is in a unique position to exploit this. They have expanded market
References: [56] Washington, Business Wire, press release 14.06.2001 [57] The Global Market Place, 1987 [58] Belen Balanya…[et al.] (2000) ‘Europe Inc., Regional & Global Restructuring and the Rise of Corporate Power’, Pluto Press, London, pg. 29 [59] Ibidem [62] Greenpeace press release, March 7, 2001 // see also: Multinational Monitor, April 2001, pg. 6-7 [63] Unilever Jaaroverzicht 2000, en verkorte jaarrekening (Unilever publication, Dutch version)