Unilever’s Project Sunlight - Is There Really a Ray of Hope Here?

You take a famous celebrity, babies and play upon the emotions of people by recording the reactions of to-be parents. Seems like a pretty good recipe for an advertising campaign. What do you get after mixing all these ingredients? You get thousands of likes on social networking sites, more than 3 million views for the ad and still counting.

So, what exactly is this “Project Sunlight”? The website claims that it is a movement towards sustainability, a movement that has already started.

But I see no movement here. What does Unilever exactly plan on doing? It would have been better if they would have stated their goals on the website clearly. So, they plan on helping 2 million children through partnerships. They plan on providing school meals, improved hygiene and clean & safe drinking water. This will be done with the help of the World Food Programme, Save the Children and UNICEF. The question here is how are they going about their goals, where is the clarity on that? We all are waiting to hear some answers.

Unilever has also made pledges like using 100 percent cage-free eggs by 2020. They have also stated that their Lipton tea products will come from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms by 2018.

Will all these good things they plan on doing override the unethical stuff they’ve been doing all these years. Will people ever forget about the rain forests Unilever keeps on destroying? Unilever purchases palm oil in large quantities from suppliers who are responsible for the depletion of rain forests. What about the association of Unilever with unethical companies like Wilmar?

Unilever also uses harmful substances like BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) in its products. BHT is a toxic carcinogen which also causes many allergies and respiratory problems.

Unilever is responsible for destroying Indonesian villages and contributes majorly towards Indonesia being the third largest emitter of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Closer home, the Indian subsidiary Hindustan Unilever is responsible for harming Tamil Nadu by dumping highly toxic mercury waste.

All this boils down to one simple thing. You can’t just make a fancy advertisement and tell people to buy your stuff to save the environment. Yes, there are people out there who are asking: How do we save the environment by stocking up on soaps, deodorant sprays, fairness creams et al.