To ask you to watch the Iceland banned Xmas ad?

[selfidentifyinggiraffe]

It was banned for being too political. I like Iceland

• [Message from MNHQ: Original video link removed at OP's request - the correct one is further down the thread]

I love this advert. God forbid a store advertise anything other than excess.

They still sell plenty of brand names with palm oil in them.
In fact if you look around they are he same as other shops.
Very clever to get you all to believe it though.

Romanyroots
Yup its a cynical advert
but its making LOTS of people think about why their food has palm oil in it
which is a great start.

@Romany, they aren't claiming not to sell products with palm oil in them, they have said they have removed it from their own products. Thus is a start and hopefully more will follow

Watched it on YouTube, brilliant ad, shop regularly from there but will now be main source. Will also look out for palm oil

I don't give a shit if it is a big PR move or if Iceland make trillions off the back of this advert... at least they're doing something.

Being an ethical consumer is hard work and ultimately there is only so much us individuals can do. It's the big corporations that need to step up and make the changes.

So yes it's a bit twee, yes Iceland stand to make money from this and yes they still sell other brands products but here they are, a well known company making an actual change and all some people want to talk about is how it's a cynical PR move if it was Waitrose I bet it would be different.

In fact if you look around they are he same as other shops.

Which other shops have removed palm oil from their own products?

I love Iceland. Just about to do a shop there now (and they sell Slimming World meals).
Great advert. I hate all those adverts that say " ...best Christmas ever .." while trying to sell their packaged tat.

Very clever to get you all to believe it though.

Get us all to believe what? Everybody has said throughout the thread they've stopped using palm oil in their own-brand products, not in everything they sell.

Awfully twee and annoying.

😂. Said with literally no irony at all. "Awfully twee", pmsl!

I suppose you could ask, though, how many own-brand products a frozen food company ever had that included palm oil.

Lots I would imagine. I have a palm oil intolerance, which is how I first became interested in the subject of palm oil creeping into lots of products. Palm oil makes buying bread, cakes, quiches, desserts, party food, nibbles, ready meals etc. almost impossible for me. I imagine Iceland sell all of these products and if they're managing to do so without palm oil then so could all the other supermarkets. It will have required an investment to go palm oil free.

I've never actually set foot in an Iceland store as I've always assumed it's all junk food. The ad has therefore worked for Iceland because I'm going to give their products a go whereas otherwise it's a shop I wouldn't set foot in.

Yes, this is a thinly veiled marketing ploy from Iceland and they stand to gain from it but I can't help but think it has got to be a good thing for the spreading of the message to people that palm oil is doing damage. The video is effective and if the deliberate taking it on as the Iceland advert in order to get it banned and therefore loads of publicity then I'm all for that.

Good on Iceland. I try not to buy stuff with palm oil in if I can avoid it but not always successful. I’m going to try harder.

They still sell plenty of brand names with palm oil in them.
In fact if you look around they are he same as other shops.
Very clever to get you all to believe it though.

Its about giving people the choice to buy things without palm oil.
They cant just stop selling everything else suddenly! The more people that know about it the better and then maybe the other big brands will wake up and take the hint, we dont want palm oil products. Its rank, spoils the taste of everything but we are supposed to be like sheep and keep buying thier stuff because of 'the name' and is destroying lives. People have lived in these areas for thousands of years and big companies telling them "Heres an idea we will buldoze your forests, burn it all to the ground and plant trees for you to grow, what a cracking idea. But of course all the plants you rely on and all the animals living there will die but thats by the by.
You will get a pittance for your work and when the land is gone we will move on and leave you all to the devastation. I am sure you will be fine" yep great idea all round.

I dont see any other major supermarket stepping up and banning palm oil in thier own brand products. And no 'Tescos' there is no such thing as sustainable palm oil. If you cared to dig a bit deeper you would know that.

The whole sustainability thing needs to be something that local producers can grow without destroying huge tracts of forrest and be actually beneficial to them and thier own habitat. And can make them money year in year out not just until the land is all used up and barren.

Actually Frikadela it wouldnt the only time ive shopped in waitrose is when driving home to see my parents and it was the only shop in the service station. I also said i love icelands and the actual advert having sought it out plenty over the last few months and i actually checked and yes i did post it on my social media months ago ( which i dont post on often - a couple times a year). Just don't like manipulation whatever the cause and yes this is a good cause.

I’m not sure it encompasses Christmas but then, there’s not much that DOES these days. Christmas is often about spending too much, drinking too much, stress, sales, queues, spending time with in laws you’d rather not bother with and won’t see til next Christmas.

As a message, I don’t see it as political, per se. We ARE fucking up the planet. Land and sea. We ARE intent on destruction of the environment and each other. From that viewpoint; as a warning to us all, it’s excellent.

sustainable palm oil just means *all the orangs there died more than three years ago

Palm oil is CHEAP That is why manufacturers use it.
We survived before it.
We will be better off after its production ceases

In Sri Lanka it provides very little employment (all mechanical picking) and the plantations are devoid of other species.

The ad being banned has given them more publicity than being aired would have. But chat away

And the problem with that is?

In fact if you look around they are he same as other shops. But some of us can read, so we know they said they will remove it from their own products! We can now rely on them to be palm oil free.

The advert is a deliberate act of 'non Christmassiness' and the 2 organisations will both have decided how to make the most impact and get the most bang for their buck. That's what businesses do.

If you want to imagine that everyone here is too stupid to understand that you have an inflated idea of your own intellect!

Curious

Wow, you can read, how clever of you.

I can make a point too, and it was as a company they sell as many goods containing palm oil as any other shop.
It doesn't make them any better.
Ours sell more non frozen than frozen goods.
Now do you understand pet?

I think it is very easy for me to say let's not use palm oil, although in practice it isn't that easy because it's in everything . I have enough money to pay more for my shopping and my income isn't impacted. I can't comment on Sri Lanka but it Costa Rica it does provide employment alongside destroying the rainforest. I live in a two car household with a fridge, freezer and heating. The people we are asking to give up their income have none of these things, we need clear ideas to support them at least alongside if not before we cut off their income stream.

Bless!

So this advert is banned for being too political but Sainsbury’s using the no man’s land football match to sell chocolate was cool. Ok then.

Any attempt to cut down the use of palm oil gets my backing. I hope it makes the other supermarkets think about it too. I get really fed up with squinting at the tiny writing on labels and finding it in so many products.

I was a bit snobby about Iceland before they started this campaign earlier this year, but have found it to be better than I expected, and good value too.

as a company they sell as many goods containing palm oil as any other shop.

No they don't as their own brand products are palm oil free. Are other stores' own brands palm oil free?

In fairness to the doubters, Iceland doesn't have that many own branded products. It’s not like Tesco or Sainsbury’s or Lidl.

So the ‘action’ taken is a bit limited. But I still give them credit. Someone upthread said it’d change 10% of their stock. That’s not bad.

None of the big supermarkets could do this, not because they wouldn’t want to but because they couldn’t logistically do it.