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AIBU?

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Original poster

to expect politically correct snacks from the BBC?

132 replies

Elasticwoman · 28/03/2008 20:13

Dh and I had free tickets to see a BBC show being filmed. In the break between filming they didn't want the audience to disperse so they gave us all cartons of juice and (oh no!) chocolate biscuits made by Nestle - boo! hiss! I could have murdered a chocolate biscuit but not that one.

When I pointed this out to a BBC flunky she had a blonde moment and claimed never to have heard of the Nestle boycott.

Comments from any one who works for the Beeb would be much appreciated. Shame on you!

OP posts:
SenoraPostrophe · 30/03/2008 14:42

madje, no they're not, but they are breaching advertising guidelines, and so is everyone else, which is why I think the biycott is pointless (though it wasn't originally)

madje2 · 30/03/2008 18:06

I find these issues so hard . I mean I try but with ethically sourced this, fair trade that, organic the other I sometimes wonder where to start. E.g I have never bought anything but free range eggs having witnessed a battery farm as a child. Then I watch Jamie Oliver to realise that half the stuff in my cupboard contained battery produced eggs. Obvious of course when you think about it but i just never had. That then starts me wondering how much of what we buy is exactly what we believe it to be? But is that then an reason to just give up? Probably not. Then the issue of cost comes into it and as someone on a limited income ( why else would I be working on a Sunday) that is a real issue. It's hard work having a conscience isn't it !!!!!

2shoes · 30/03/2008 18:17

yabu

emj23 · 30/03/2008 18:44

Which advertising guidelines are being breached? I thought they weren't allowed to advertise baby formula?

3andnomore · 30/03/2008 18:53

Elastic women, I know many many people who are unaware of the nestle boycott, and also a lot who think it's an "outdated" thing, i.e. they knew about it yonks ago but assume it has been sorted.
I didn't know about it until early 2003...I was "blissfully" unaware until then.

Obviously it is a bit out of order if it was all about comic relief...that is kind of a blooper...but other then that you are kinda being unreasonable, sorry!

Alderney · 30/03/2008 19:55

If you and your family choose to boycott Nestle, then fine...you do it - take along approriate snacks (after all, if the BBC saw fit to provide you with snacks then I'm guessing they anticipated you'd be there a while...and so you should have taken your own if you knew you were going to be there for a while...)

Your boycott, you take your own food that fits in with what you believe.

I'd say about 95% of the people in my locale would never have heard of the boycott - and of the 5% who have heard of it, I doubt much more than 0.1% would actually follow it. You can't expect any organisation to cater for the feelings of 1 in a thousand.

SugarSkyHigh · 30/03/2008 20:06

Dear Points Of View, do you mean to say my licence fee should go towards sourcing politically correct snacks? what is the world coming too?

Hulababy · 30/03/2008 20:12

They could have given you a Greggs sausage roll and a Fruitshoot - now that may well have been much worse!

I'd never heard of the Nestle boycott until I came on MN; and I am not blonde!

Scattybird · 30/03/2008 20:16

Are you taking the piss? Genuine q.

madje2 · 30/03/2008 20:19

What is it with fruit shoot then? Other than it is disgusting? keep seeing it mentioned on here

SenoraPostrophe · 30/03/2008 21:00

fruit shoots are little bottles of ready made squash, a bit like ribena. They're made by robinsons.

they're not really disgusting at all, but for some reason attract a lot of snobbery. they're not as nice as greggs sausage rolls though.

SenoraPostrophe · 30/03/2008 21:01

(mind you, it is annoying when cafes do offers which include "fruit juice" and it turns out to be a fruit shoot. it mucks up me fruit portion calculations...)

Original poster
Elasticwoman · 30/03/2008 21:03

Fingerwoman I am by your bf cafe serving THAT coffee.

I don't require organic fairtrade snacks - just anything but Nestle - the most boycotted company in the world and for good reason.

No they haven't sorted out their act sufficiently. The Boycott has been going on 30 years, and about 5 years ago they lost a libel action against a very small organisation, Association of Breastfeeding Mothers I think it was.

They are not the only company to transgress the WHO code, but they are the worst offenders.

I know I am being scandalously ungrateful considering we had free tickets and free snacks, and do you know? They didn't even charge me for using the toilet! But I have very high expectations of the Beeb.

The host of the show I saw being filmed was tenacious terrier political interviewer John Humphrys. So I have written to him (about something completely different actually) and at the end drew his attention to my beef re the evil multinational. I managed NOT to write in green ink so it remains to be seen whether he regards me as a crazy old bat like so many of you (think I am).

OP posts:
Original poster
Elasticwoman · 30/03/2008 21:05

I probably would have declined a sausage roll and fruitshoot (too sweet for me) but not moaned about it.

OP posts:
ChocolateRockingHorse · 30/03/2008 21:08

I care about the Boycott. But not enough to stop using Body Shop's Satsuma Body Butter.

I am a disgrace.

I was never ever going to admit that to MN.

I am a masochist I think.

Original poster
Elasticwoman · 30/03/2008 21:25

Chocolate - thank you for sharing that. The Boycott is a symbolic thing and you can choose how far you take it. Some people, for instance, only boycott the coffee, others only things branded Evil Swiss Boo Hiss, and some go the whole hog by not buying anything made by any company owned by them, eg Crosse & Blackwell. There is a huge long list of such companies/brands and you could go mad trying to remember them all.

Personally I find supermarket own brand much cheaper and often better quality as well.

OP posts:
ChocolateRockingHorse · 30/03/2008 21:27

ElasticWoman, are you Hunker reincarnated?

Chequers · 30/03/2008 21:29

Message withdrawn

Original poster
Elasticwoman · 30/03/2008 21:29

No and I'm wondering where she and her ilk have sloped off to tonight.

OP posts:
ChocolateRockingHorse · 30/03/2008 21:30

She's buggered off full stop, not just tonight.

Original poster
Elasticwoman · 30/03/2008 21:30

Chequers: my expectation was Not Nestle. Not that I thought about it at all until confronted with the ...er ... gulp ... forbidden fruit.

OP posts:
Chequers · 30/03/2008 21:31

Message withdrawn

Original poster
Elasticwoman · 30/03/2008 21:32

Chocolate how do you know? Has she declared her goodbyes, or just not been seen for a while? She might be on holiday or trapped at Heathrow or something.

OP posts:
Chequers · 30/03/2008 21:33

Message withdrawn

glaskham · 30/03/2008 21:35

only read Op and forst page....i didn't and still dont know what the nestle boycot is!!! though i'd never feed my kids that sort of crap....(or at least not till they're at school-haha!!) but why does everyone have to know anything....if you wanted a biscuit does it really matter what brand it is?...i say you should've been polite and taken one and pretended you enjoyed it!!

If only to not hurt the poor girls feelings, i'd be upset if no-one ate biscuits i offered!!