Unilever is launching a TV campaign highlighting its work with Oxfam to tackle hunger and food waste.
Debuting during Sunday night’s edition of the X Factor, it will be first ever advert for the Unilever umbrella brand.
The ad depicts historic figures Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi alongside modern day anti-hunger campaigners including 15-year-old Grace Jones, the UK voice of the campaign. It ends with the text “Unilever is turning their feelings into action – together with Oxfam we are working to defeat hunger in the UK”.
The one-minute film is part of Unilever’s Project Sunlight, a global campaign that promotes environmental sustainability and access to clean water, while combating hunger and child mortality.
Unilever UK and Oxfam, the consumer goods giant’s official charity partner, chose to focus on what they call the “paradox of food waste versus food poverty”. A new report published by the two organisations, Waste Not Want Not, shows that 42% of UK households struggle to live on their incomes, with 22% of the parents in those families going without food so their children have enough. At the same time, three quarters of Brits throw away food that could have been eaten.
The two organisations have created #ClearAPlate, a campaign encouraging people to finish their plates and share a picture on social media, in order to encourage consumers to think about their own food waste. It will be supported by in-store activity.
“When our staff describe working at Unilever, they often say that people don’t really know who we are: what we make and what we do,” said Charlotte Carroll, communications director for Unilever UK & Ireland. “One of our objectives with Project Sunlight is to forge a clearer link in people’s minds between Unilever the company and the brands that we have.”
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