By Sarah Butler and Mark Sweney
9 November 2018
(The Guardian) – Iceland’s Christmas campaign has been banned from TV because it has been deemed to breach political advertising rules.As part of its festive campaign the discount supermarket struck a deal with Greenpeace to rebadge an animated short film featuring an orangutan and the destruction of its rainforest habitat at the hands of palm oil growers.Earlier this year, Iceland became the first major UK supermarket to pledge to remove palm oil from all its own-brand foods. Habitat loss in countries such as Malaysia – a major global producer of palm oil – has contributed to the orangutan now being classified as critically endangered.Clearcast, the body responsible for vetting ads before they are broadcast to the public, said it was in breach of rules banning political advertising laid down by the 2003 Communications Act.“This was a film that Greenpeace made with a voice over by Emma Thompson,” said Iceland’s founder, Malcolm Walker. “We got permission to use it and take off the Greenpeace logo and use it as the Iceland Christmas ad. It would have blown the John Lewis ad out of the window. It was so emotional.” [more]

Iceland’s Christmas TV advert banned for being too politicalScreenshot from the animated short advertisment for Iceland Foods, named 'Say hello to Rang-tan'. The Christmas ad shows forest destruction in Indonesia displacing orangutans and was pulled on 9 November 2018 for being too political. Graphic: Iceland Foods

By Bill Bostock
9 November 2018(Business Insider) – A British supermarket chain said on Friday their Christmas advert has been banned for being too political because it shows palm oil manufacturers terrorizing orangutans. Iceland’s animated advert, called “Rang-tan,” stars a small girl talking to a baby orangutan in her bedroom. She tells the orangutan: “They destroy all of your trees for your food and shampoo.” The orangutan says a human “took away my mother and I’m scared he’ll take me too.” [more]

Iceland pulls ad showing palm oil harvesters terrorizing orangutans for being too political