Iceland have revealed that its Christmas advert for 2018 was banned by advertising regulators because of its message surrounding rainforest destruction for palm oil.
You know Christmas is coming when the Christmas adverts start appearing on your screens.
Each year the supermarkets and retailers compete to try and win the public over but one player will be missing this year.
Iceland have revealed that its TV ad was perhaps too ambitious with the message it was trying to send out, because it was banned by advertising standards for being aligned with a political issue.
The ad aimed to highlight the issue of rainforest destruction in South East Asia, which is a direct result of palm oil production and contributes to the loss of 25 orangutan a day.
Earlier this year Iceland announced that it was committed to removing palm oil from all of its own label food by the end of 2018.
The emotive Christmas advert is an animation named Rang-tan and it highlights the devastating impact that rainforest destruction has on the endangered orangutan population.
Although the advert has been banned on television, Iceland are still determined to spread their message and have instead launched the advert on social media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdpspllWI2o
Speaking about the ad and Iceland’s commitment to eradicating palm oil from its products, Richard Walker, Managing Director at Iceland explained: ‘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.’
He added: ‘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.’
What do you think of Iceland’s Christmas advert? Do you think it should have been allowed to air on television? Head over to our Facebook page to share your thoughts!
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