Don’t Cry Over Bilked Milk

Roger Hislop

Nestlé is having a torrid time. It’s the kind of story every news journalist loves.  Global multinational! Profits at the expense of the poor! Grace Mugabe! Chocolate! As a PR person, I can even envy a little the PR people that are having to deal with it – it’s like being the SWAT team newbie who finally gets to put his hard-won skills to the test. Corporate communications crisis! Brand image at risk! Snowballing negative coverage! Chocolate!

As it unfolds, it’s attracting its fair share of hand-wringing, finger-wagging, horrified hissing, angry denunciation and just as angry rebuttal.

It’s also absolutely lovely to see a multinational organisation shatter into national stereotypes:

Swiss Government: Has the letter of the law been broken? No? OK, no problem.
“Nestlé confirmed that no individuals or companies in Switzerland were in any way involved in the relevant transactions... Therefore, no further investigations are planned at the moment.”

Nestlé Zimbabwe: Think of the children! Oh, the humanity!
“Had Nestlé decided to close down its operations in Zimbabwe, the company would have triggered further food shortages and hundreds of job losses among its employees and milk suppliers in an already very difficult situation.”

Nestlé Switzerland: Ve did nothink wrong, and even if ve did, you can’t touch us.
“We are not obliged to comply with the (European Union) sanctions because our headquarters were in Switzerland and we have not broken any Swiss laws.”

Nestlé South Africa: We stand up like a man and take it on the chin.
“We do not have any kind of business relationship with Nestlé Zimbabwe.”

Afriforum set up a protest site, nestlebloodmilk.com. Nestle SA was once again steadfast in its principled position: “We have not received formal notification of the campaign.”

UPDATE 1/10/09 -- Nestle SA suddenly seems to be talking for Nestle Zim after all ... it announced at a press conference that it will stop buying from Auntie Grace, because while implicitely supporting a murdering despot is OK, a consumer boycott is not. 

• 2009/10/01
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