BO promotion through Nestle and McCain

[gaw]

Club Chairs and Secretaries will have received an email from Craig Anthony about this. The promotion is set to start in April and if Clubs want to opt out they need to let Craig know by 9 March.
Personally I don't think Nestle or McCain are companies I want orienteering to be aligned with and I have written to Craig to ask him to extend the 9 March deadline to allow Clubs time to consider this. It may be I am a lone voice in which case it will go through. My concerns are:
Nestle have an ethical rating of 0.5/20 with Ethical Consumer. http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethical-company-ratings/nestle-ethical-company-ratings.aspx
McCain - I would have thought that if BO are to make an arrangement with the food industry it should be with a company aligned with good health.

If anyone else has concerns please ask their Club Chair or Secretary to share the email and to ask for time to respond.

[SeanC]

This seems very similar to a promotion Nestle did a few years ago. We also had a discussion here about it.

I think people could apply for vouchers for free sporting events if they teared off labels from cereal boxes etc. Since orienteering is only one of a number of other more box office type sports on offer, and because orienteering is comparatively cheap, I would only expect a fairly small number of newcomers with their vouchers at orienteering events (which I think is what happened last time). It all helps

It will need to be a very good offer to persuade me to eat a box of Curiously Cinnamons though.

[gaw]

Having emailed Craig Anthony I've received this response:

Thank you for your response. I certainly understand your concern with regards to the timescale unfortunately these are timescales that are set by the promotions rather than ourselves.
Whilst I appreciate your concern regarding associations with the companies it was felt that the scale of these promotions gave orienteering a platform to reach a huge market of potential participants in a core audience for the sport. However we did want to provide clubs with the option to opt out and have done so.
Regards
Craig

I'd summarise that as ethics goes out of the window when money is offered.

[jab]

I have made my club aware of the reasons i think we shouldn't participate in this.

[RJ]

This is free advertising.... which is in itself a positive.

Anyone who is concerned by Nestles' poor ethical rating is unlikely to be eating their products, and therefore won't realise the link with orienteering, and may find another route into the sport (should we have a profile elsewhere?). Positive.

Any orienteer who sees 'orienteering' on the side of the box of a Nestles' product should be able to rationalise that, and accept it (if they are bothered by the company's 'ethical behaviour').

McCains may produce a lot of chocolate products.... and orienteers may indeed eat them themselves (maybe even in moderation!) Those who eat to excess are unlikely to want to take part in an active sport..... but you never know, they might and they might enjoy it. Again, positive.

It is the general public who respond to the advertising and 'free access' to the sport that we should focus on. Anything that brings an enquiring mind to an orienteering event should be welcomed, with time and effort spent on making sure they have an exciting and worthwhile experience, such that they return and then pay money to participate. Positive.

Nestle and McCains may not be 'desirable' in the mind of some, but let us not write off a large number of the general public who buy and consume their products.

[Arnold]

SLOW will definitely take part. As RJ said, what a great opportunity to market orienteering to a wide public!

In case people hadn’t noticed, orienteering is an ultra-niche sport that is slowly dying because too few new people take up the sport. ANYTHING that we can do to market the sport to a wider audience should be welcomed with open arms. We certainly cannot afford to be picky about whose free advertising we choose to accept!!

[mikey]

Not sure what the issue would be with McCains. A healthier chip option and all using British potatoes. Seems a bit precious to ignore their offer.

[jab]

Nestle persistently and aggressively promote breastmilk substitutes in developing countries in violation of the international code on marketing breastmilk substitutes. It targets pregnant women, mothers of babies and health workers to promote its products, with misleading claims and often without the relevant warnings in the correct language,
This undermines breastfeeding and, where clean water is not available, hygiene standards are poor and parents struggle to afford formula milk and so over dilute it, infants become ill and infant mortality is increased. The World Health Organisation estimates that optimal breastfeeding of infants aged 0-23 months has the potential to save 800,000 lives a year.

Nestle are very good at selling themselves and dismissing the evidence of malpractice -
they can afford to put a lot of money into it and they invest a lot into promotions with schools and sports clubs to improve their image,
Of course we can afford to be picky over whose free advertising we accept. There are things that are more important than increasing participation in orienteering.

[RJ]

There are things that are more important than increasing participation in orienteering.

Indeed there are.... many. If you want to ask me to help lobby against Nestle, and have a petition to sign, or you want me to write to my MP, then I will certainly give it some thought. It is one issue that I haven't been involved in, as yet. But orienteering is not a pressure group, nor should it be.

..... increasing participation in orienteering.

Within the sport of orienteering, there is nothing that is more important than inviting new people to take up the sport, and give it a try, and to do everything we can to increase participation. With current levels of falling membership our life expectancy, as a sport, is short. Within my region we have been suffering 5-10% membership decrease for many, many years now. Soon we may not have the opportunity available for those with their Nestle voucher to turn up and experience some orienteering.

Quite how I connected McCains with chocolate I've no idea. Wonder who I was thinking of!

[guessed]

It could be argued that Nestle do more global harm than guns do in USA schools. But notice that businesses are breaking their ties with the NRA because they recognise how the poor image of NRA rubs off on their business.

Likewise, the association with Nestle will tarnish our brand. It might be free to us, but Nestle are not doing the offer out of the goodness of their hearts. They have a motive, and an agenda.

Involving orienteering with Nestle's image polishing puts our sport into the same 'profit at all costs camp'. We then became something else that might be boycotted because of our association with them.

So let's just stay 'thank you for your kind offer, but not today. Please come back when you really are an ethical company' .

[Gross]

I'd guess that (like me) most people don't have a clue about any issue with Nestle.... all I know is that it's a brand of choclate (for RJ ) that keeps me going in Cuba.... so 'thank you Nestle'

[Gross]

Orienteers use vast amount of petrol & print maps on non-recyleable paper.... lets start a campaign to ban orienteering.

[denbydale]

Likewise, the association with Nestle will tarnish our brand. ' .

What a load of tosh! What brand?

[SeanC]

Orienteering can expand. No need for doom and gloom.

Those of you that read the last CompassSport will have read that TVOC have been expanding their membership at approximately 10% per year, and regularly get over 100 non members to their local events.

Promotion is the key to their success, and in particular Facebook promotion. Ah, another company with a dodgy reputation: tax avoidance, fake news etc. But even EthicalConsumer magazine has a Facebook page.

At some point organisations behave so badly it's reasonable to boycott, even if it's turning down a good offer. Could someone enlighten/inform us about Nestle and McCains?

[jab]

Recent research suggests that the bad practice that baby-milk companies say they have put behind them is still going on. Nestle are not the only company to break the WHO code but they are the largest baby-milk company

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... astfeeding


If we took the view that any promotion was good promotion we would still have tobacco companies sponsoring sporting events. I had rather assumed that we all thought it was a good thing that such sponsorship was illegal.