MN now in cohorts with nestle? Body Shop ad on site

[fanjolina]

Please tell me my eyes deceived me?!!!

Was that actually a Body Shop advert I saw on the side of my MN page? You have a Nestle-free zone logo on your homepage. Yet Body Shop is owned by Nestle (via L'oreal).

Please, please don't continue with this.

[AlCrowley]

Missed the Body Shop ad but I would have said that having one alongside a Nestle-free logo was a bit odd.

[PedlarsSpanner]

yes, a body shop at home ad has just flashed up

[AlCrowley]

Just had a look on the home page, it's definitely there.

C'mon Mumsnet, that's not on!!

[FiveGoMadInDorset]

Oops

[1of4]

I'm pretty good at filtering adverts, barely even noticed that MN had them! however am totally gobsmacked that there is a body shop advert and a nestle boycott logo - totally wrong. One has to go - and I know which one it should be!

[SecretNutellaFix]

A bit rubbish, especially considering th enot inconsiderably sized "Nestle-Free Zone" logo at the bottom of the page.

[LittleSilver]

Hellllooooooooo? Mumsnet bods? Any answers to that shameful ad?

[fanjolina]

Ooh, report me Leningrad! This needs their attention. In flashing lights.

[fanjolina]

We'll all have boycotted the site by then!

[SeaShellsOnTheSeaShore]

Doh!

[1of4]

reported! Money from ad should go to baby milk action by way of an apology.

[Olihan]

Ads do come from somewhere else iirc. There was one a while ago that went against the MN ethos but it was a mistake by someone in the advertising firm, rather than something specifically endorsed by MNHQ.

At a guess, this was put on by a muppet within the advertising company who doesn't know the L'Oreal/Nestle/Body Shop link.

[CatherineMumsnet]

Hi all, thanks for bringing this to our attention - we'll certainly be waving it in-front of the rest of the team when they get in tomorrow morning.

[ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave]

For FUCK's sake! "It explains why they didn't want to have Mike Brady from Baby Milk Action for a webchat."?

MN have consistently turned down ads that would bring them a hell of a lot more revenue than they get at the moment. They have consistently asked the membership what we think about adverts that are a bit "grey area". They have changed their mind on "grey area" stuff (like that silly Avent microsite, although I still don't know what they were thinking of there in the first place) when the membership has objected. They have told us, sometimes in detail and sometimes in words of one syllable, that their advertising is handled by an external company who have been given a "do not include" list and that they need us to speak up if we see something that's slipped through the net.

But, yeah, let's just assume that when one Body Shop ad appears it's part of a sinister conspiracy with MN taking piles of cash as backhanders and the fact that they don't immediately jump in and get it removed late at night on a bank holiday (by contacting the external company, presumably, which I'm sure will have hundreds of people in the office at that point) is further confirmation of that, and not a cock-up on the part of an underpaid online advertising person who doesn't realise that Body Shop is ultimately owned by Nestle. Because that's so much more likely.

(As a matter of interest, did anyone actually email MNHQ about the Mike Brady thing, or just rely on their seeing the thread? And is he offering to pay to have the webchat (webchats are almost always paid for by the chatters, except the election time ones) or is it also envisaged that MN should do it as a freebie?)

[JustineMumsnet]

Hello all,
Have to say we weren't aware of the Body shop connection but we did collectively agree when we talked about this some time ago on the site and introduced the Nestle boycott that we would boycott any Nestle controlled company or one with Nestle branding in the name (eg Nescafe). Nestle owns a 26% stake in L'oreal which has a majority ownership in the Body Shop; and we agreed at the time that investment stakes wouldn't qualify.

It is a tricky balancing act tbh between making a statement about about Nestle and their unethical practices (which we are keen to do) and not completely crippling our chances of meeting our costs as our business model is advertising-funded and Nestle has small stakes in 100s of companies.

Obviously it would be nice to be able to say we would never have an ad from any company that Nestle had the smallest interest. Indeed it would be nice to not have to accept any advertising at all - but we have to be realistic about what we can do - and we think we are raising awareness about Nestle and making our point as it stands.

Like everything it's a balancing act. We have turned down a lot of potential advertising revenue from Nestle as well as all the other formula milk brands and we are more than happy to do that to make our point but excluding every company that Nestle has a minority stake in (of which there are 100s) is probably beyond us.

Anyway this is where we got to last time we discussed it on the site a few years ago. Please do, of course, let us know your views. We are always happy to review policy and it would be good to know folks' thoughts.

[ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave]

Ah, so it wasn't entirely accidental, although still no global conspiracy.

I will put my hand up and say that I don't properly boycott Nestle (although I generally try to choose the non-Nestle alternative, and rarely buy a Nestle product - when I do it's generally because I'm somewhere without access to drinking water and there's only Buxton or Vittel available). But if you are going to do it, and use the Nestle-free logo, then I think you should boycott properly, which would include any company or product on the Baby Milk Action list.

[ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave]

(and in spite of the "small stakes in 100s of companies" thing, that's really in practical terms just adding a dozen or so cosmetics companies to the list)

[Marchpane]

Agree with Prof.

Out of interest, would you allow L'Oreal to advertise? If not then please add Body Shop to your list of boycotted businesses.

And if you will allow L'Oreal then I really don't see how you can display the Nestle boycott.