The Switzerland-based Solidar, not to be confused with Solidaridad Network, is attacking George Clooney and Nespresso for not using fair trade coffee. At this moment, the Nestlé brand Nespresso is under attack because of a parody of the ‘falling piano’ advertisement.
Nico Roozen, director of Solidaridad, reacts to this in an article in the Financieel Dagblad (Dutch financial newspaper) of September 13:
"Solidar opts for the easy attack on the most prominent brand. This kind of campaign doesn’t help the coffee farmers and pickers at all. Although Nestlé still has a good deal of work to do in order to make its other coffee brands sustainable, Nespresso, for one, scores relatively well now. Coffee farmers want to supply to Nespresso because Nespresso often pays the highest price. The time of criticizing from the sideline has passed. Development organizations and labels shouldn’t steal each other’s marches, but should develop the best possible programmes together with the market players.”
All this based on the following advertising spot by Solidar, who respresent a group of 25 European NGOs working to advance social justice in Europe and worldwide.
Nestlé’s reaction included this video(below).