X is now suing more advertisers in an antitrust lawsuit focusing on what the company’s CEO Linda Yaccarino has claimed is a “systematic illegal boycott.”
Nestle has an extremely safe, risk-averse marketing strategy. In part due to their various scandals, they try really hard to be family friendly and boring.
That said, they are not worse than other food and beverage conglomerates.
child labor: mars & others were also implicated. These companies were most likely unaware of the child labor being used to harvest cocoa. The way it works is there are wholesalers in Africa who buy cocoa from processing facilities who buy fresh cocoa pods from local farms. These wholesalers advertised themselves as being child-labore-free. The farms they buy from were using child labor. This is a problem with capitalism exploiting people in the global south, causing perverse incentives, and with companies having limited insight into the full depth of their supply chains.
water is not a human right: The nestle water exec said the quiet part out loud. But, no beverage company believes water is a human right - they just aren’t stupid enough to say that on camera. If they did think it was a human right, they’d be working to ensure universal access to clean water rather than bottling it and shipping it around the world while limiting water access at their extraction points and polluting the water near their factories. Look at what coca cola is doing in mexico - rampant water pollution such that in factory towns. Coke is the only safe drink for folks because the water is contaminated. Nestle is bad, but no worse than coca cola.
infant formula scandal: this occurred in the 1970s and was obviously awful. Every major multinational food and beverage conglomerate has stories like this if you look hard enough - this just happens to be a fucked up series of events that got some major media play.
People online scapegoat Nestle, but continue to buy electronics and clothing made with child labor, tree nuts/soda/and other products known to be harmful to watersheds, and many other products from companies which harm people in the global south. This isn’t meant to defend nestle, but to remind everyone that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Nestle is not anywhere close to an uniquely evil company. Not even in its own industry.
The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent.
“food” here can be safely assumed to include “water”. “Everyone” means “also people who can’t afford shoelaces”. There’s exactly one country in the world which didn’t ratify the ICESCR and it’s the US.
Regarding “uniquely evil”: Yeah I’m definitely boycotting Chiquita (United Fruit) and Bacardi harder, both are still, effectively, whining about having their slave plantations expropriated. Both aren’t exactly hard to do their bananas are more expensive than no-brand organic ones over here, and Bacardi, well there’s plenty of good rum, Bacardi ain’t one of them. If you ever make a Cuba Libre with Bacardi I shall explode into tirades.
The company might be terrible, but most of their buyers are normal people who either don’t know what brands belong to them, or don’t care enough to carefully investigate everything they buy. And those normal people are the ones the ads need to reach. If they leave twitter, what’s the point of advertising there?
I’m honestly blown away that Nestle stopped or reduced advertising. It seems like twitter is exactly the home for such a terrible company.
Nestle has an extremely safe, risk-averse marketing strategy. In part due to their various scandals, they try really hard to be family friendly and boring.
That said, they are not worse than other food and beverage conglomerates.
child labor: mars & others were also implicated. These companies were most likely unaware of the child labor being used to harvest cocoa. The way it works is there are wholesalers in Africa who buy cocoa from processing facilities who buy fresh cocoa pods from local farms. These wholesalers advertised themselves as being child-labore-free. The farms they buy from were using child labor. This is a problem with capitalism exploiting people in the global south, causing perverse incentives, and with companies having limited insight into the full depth of their supply chains.
water is not a human right: The nestle water exec said the quiet part out loud. But, no beverage company believes water is a human right - they just aren’t stupid enough to say that on camera. If they did think it was a human right, they’d be working to ensure universal access to clean water rather than bottling it and shipping it around the world while limiting water access at their extraction points and polluting the water near their factories. Look at what coca cola is doing in mexico - rampant water pollution such that in factory towns. Coke is the only safe drink for folks because the water is contaminated. Nestle is bad, but no worse than coca cola.
infant formula scandal: this occurred in the 1970s and was obviously awful. Every major multinational food and beverage conglomerate has stories like this if you look hard enough - this just happens to be a fucked up series of events that got some major media play.
People online scapegoat Nestle, but continue to buy electronics and clothing made with child labor, tree nuts/soda/and other products known to be harmful to watersheds, and many other products from companies which harm people in the global south. This isn’t meant to defend nestle, but to remind everyone that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Nestle is not anywhere close to an uniquely evil company. Not even in its own industry.
Water is a human right. Quoth Article 11, (1) ICESCR:
“food” here can be safely assumed to include “water”. “Everyone” means “also people who can’t afford shoelaces”. There’s exactly one country in the world which didn’t ratify the ICESCR and it’s the US.
Regarding “uniquely evil”: Yeah I’m definitely boycotting Chiquita (United Fruit) and Bacardi harder, both are still, effectively, whining about having their slave plantations expropriated. Both aren’t exactly hard to do their bananas are more expensive than no-brand organic ones over here, and Bacardi, well there’s plenty of good rum, Bacardi ain’t one of them. If you ever make a Cuba Libre with Bacardi I shall explode into tirades.
Thank you for putting it into perspective a little bit. I still won’t buy Nestlé stuff but at least now I’ll feel guilty buying anything else lol
Not if there’s fewer there to see ads. They’re still a business with a bottom line, even if what they do is terrible.
Yea, fair point.
The company might be terrible, but most of their buyers are normal people who either don’t know what brands belong to them, or don’t care enough to carefully investigate everything they buy. And those normal people are the ones the ads need to reach. If they leave twitter, what’s the point of advertising there?
Yea, I think it makes sense for them to stop if they are getting a return on their investment.