Staff at advertising body which blocked Iceland’s Christmas advert receive ‘deluge of abuse’ after angry backlash from environmentalists
- Staff at Clearcast, who blocked Iceland’s Christmas advert, faced online abuse
- The advert highlighted deforestation and featured a cartoon orangutan
- Clearcast said it could not clear its commercial, produced by Greenpeace
- They claimed the advert ‘fell foul of the rule on political advertisers’
Staff at the body responsible for blocking Iceland’s Christmas advert have faced a torrent of abuse leaving staff ‘feeling threatened’, their boss has revealed.
Pictures of employees were being passed around on Twitter, which led to fears for their safety. The company’s Facebook has also been closed indefinitely.
The commercial, voiced by actress Emma Thompson and produced by Greenpeace, features cartoon orangutan Rang-tan. The ad highlights the destruction of his rainforest home by palm oil production.
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Clearcast checks adverts against the UK broadcast advertising code to ensure they follow the rules. It told Iceland’s ad agency last month it could not clear the commercial.
This was because Greenpeace had made the ad and so it ‘fell foul of the rule on political advertisers’.
Staff at the company responsible for blocking Iceland’s Christmas advert have faced a torrent of abuse since the decision, their boss has revealed
In the aftermath of the decision, Clearcast received a ‘deluge of contact’, managing director Chris Mundy stated in a blog post.
He said: ‘Unfortunately, this included a substantial amount of abuse and resulted in the team feeling threatened.
‘We had to close our switchboard and subsequently took pictures of our team off the website (they had been circulating on Twitter).’ The company’s Facebook page has been taken down entirely and will not return, he added.
Iceland followed up its planned advertising campaign with an animatronic orangutan taking to the streets
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