Unilever makes Peace

Unilever’s Lynx Peace marketing campaign has been kicking up a stink this week, as the deodorant brand landed itself in hot water over the “co-opting” of the CND’s peace logo.

Lynx Peace launched in October last year, amid much fanfare from Unilever about how the refresh would be its “main focus for 2014”. “Make love, not war” was the strapline, and it was backed by a TV, digital, print and radio push. It’s now in 50 countries, and in the UK, it has launched collaborations with the likes of ASOS (on a range of peace-inspired T-shirts) and music producer Naughty Boy (to record an exclusive track) to get its ‘peace’ message across.

What Unilever didn’t count on, it seems, was the position of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. To be clear: Unilever didn’t need permission to use the world-famous peace logo, designed in 1958, because the CND has never copyrighted it; it simply asks for a donation to the cause if it is used for commercial purposes.

Neither did CND have much of a problem with Lynx Peace’s marketing message (who would?). As CND general secretary Kate Hudson wrote last week: “It’s refreshing to see a global corporation like Unilever taking an interest in peace issues: and the huge funding for their Lynx Peace marketing campaign (£9m in the UK alone) is such that many millions of people will be exposed to the CND symbol and its peaceful meaning.”

So where did Unilever cross the line? In a simple tweet. On Friday the @lynxeffect Twitter feed posted a publicity image of a group of people in Trafalgar Square standing in the shape of the peace logo: “One giant, man-made CND symbol in Trafalgar Square, London for #LynxPeace”, ran the (now-deleted) Tweet, with a link to the campaign website.

The direct link of ‘CND’ to a marketing campaign was a step too far for the organisation: “We draw the line when a corporation cynically uses not only our symbol, but CND’s name and history, for profit,” wrote Hudson.

To its credit, Unilever’s response to CND’s fiery protestations (and the wrath of social media users) has been swift, announcing yesterday it would make a donation to the cause. “In recognition of its historic link with the universal peace symbol, we are making a donation to CND’s charitable trust to help fund their non-campaigning peace education programme in schools,” it said in a statement.

The furore brings to mind Unilever’s ‘Marmite neglect’ ad last year, which drew ire for allegedly making light of the work of animal cruelty charities. The company ended up making an £18,000 donation to the RSPCA.

In this case, Unilever learnt that borrowing a world-renowned, ready-made symbol has its pitfalls as well as its advantages. One wonders why it didn’t make a donation to the CND before the furore erupted. Indeed, it is already a sponsor of Peace One Day – a day of global ceasefire and non-violence on 21 September – under the Axe brand (as Lynx is known elsewhere), showing it is taking its peace message seriously. Let’s hope this newly agreed truce brings peace to all concerned – including the poor Unilever bod who sent the offending tweet; after all, mercy is just as important as peace.