January 30, 2019

Consumer Watchdog Urges PepsiCo to cut ties with conflict palm oil giant Indofood

ATLANTA, GEORGIA -- Ahead of the Super Bowl LIII, where Doritos plans to launch a new TV ad promoting new Flamin’ Hot Nacho Doritos, SumOfUs, an international consumer watchdog, is releasing its own parody Doritos ad, the “EXCLUSIVE: Making of Doritos 2019 Super Bowl Ad” which calls attention to the company for its ties to rainforest destruction and human rights abuses, saying Doritos "STILL" has a dirty palm oil problem. According to SumOfUs, Doritos and its parent company, PepsiCo, want the public to believe it has cleaned up its operations, when it actually is still profiteering from a juicy and destructive joint venture partnership with Indofood, the Indonesian palm oil giant responsible for deforestation and worker abuse. IndoFood is currently being sanctioned by the RSPO for worker abuse, and has a track history of destroying the rainforest for palm oil production.

The ad, which will launch this week, will air on Facebook and Twitter and target Doritos customers and Super Bowl fans.

VIEW THE “EXCLUSIVE: MAKING OF DORITOS 2019 SUPER BOWL AD” HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7BJXWVK8Go&feature=youtu.be

SumOfUs’ parody Doritos ad features a behind-the-scenes look at the Doritos’ “Creative Agency” as it reveals their pitch for the 2019 Super Bowl commercial. In the ad, the “agency” is trying to help shift public perception, as Doritos has been getting a lot of heat over palm oil - but the meeting goes off the rails when the Doritos Exec pushes for a bolder creative direction.

Across Southeast Asia, where PepsiCo, Doritos’ parent company, sources its palm oil - workers and sometimes their children, are exploited on palm oil plantations. Forests and peatlands are slashed and burned to the ground to make room for more plantations, driving endangered species like orangutans to extinction, and releasing carbon bombs into the atmosphere and worsening climate chaos.

“Doritos’ parent company, PepsiCo, could cut deforestation and abuse out of its operations. But instead of leading the charge, PepsiCo is hanging back, issuing middling policies with gaps so big a parade of Indonesia’s endangered pygmy elephants could parade through them,” explained Fatah Sadaoui, campaigns manager at SumOfUs. “Last year, PepsiCo tried to fool us, announcing it was cutting ties with Indofood Agri Resources who had been caught destroying forests and exploiting workers. But to this day, PepsiCo is still profiteering off its joint venture partnership with Indofood, making money off worker abuse and the destruction of orangutan habitat.”

Deforestation in Southeast Asia has made Indonesia the third largest carbon emitter on Earth. The orangutan, the Sumatran tiger, and countless other endangered species are being pushed to the brink of extinction. On Indofood’s palm oil plantations, female workers are paid less than men, do not receive equal job benefits as men, and are not entitled to maternity leave; and overly high quotas are enforced, that put pressure on harvesters to bring in their family, including children, or face penalties Indofood breaks Indonesian labour laws by over relying on casual workers, who are paid less than minimum wage and denied health insurance and pensions.

More than 100,000 people have signed onto a petition from SumOfUs urging, Ramon Laguarta, CEO of PepsiCo to cut ties with Indofood by breaking its business relationship with the infamous palm oil offender.

VIEW THE PETITION HERE:

https://actions.sumofus.org/a/pepsi-finally-end-your-partnership-with-indofood

In 2015, SumOfUs launched its first-ever Dorito’s parody ad slamming the company’s sourcing of conflict palm oil from Southeast Asia. The ad, “A Cheesy Love Story - The Ad Doritos Doesn't Want You to See," featured a blossoming romance that begins over a shared Doritos chip, but ends with a stern warning that “Doritos May Contain Traces of Rainforest.”

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SumOfUs is a global consumer group that campaigns to hold big corporations accountable. Over 10 million people have taken over 50 million actions worldwide with SumOfUs since it launched: www.sumofus.org