The Wrong Shade of Green
Wow. Anita Roddick just flogged the Body Shop to L’Oreal.
This is a serious bastardisation of my 1980’s childhood (as opposed to a more tributary action, say, a live action remake of the Simpson). I remember hearing her speak on several occasions about the values of the Body Shop and everything for which it stood. It’s long been upheld as the poster child of fair trade/green/lovey values/etc. success. And now?
Businesses aren’t found in nature. Businesses aren’t deemed by God. They’re made by men and women and they’re subject to change. What you see I saw years ago as a battlefield, enemies are now our staunchest supporter. People change. They see the value of what small companies do. They want to learn from other companies. I think this company has enormous regard and enormous respect on areas and there’s only one area we challenge, and they have a great statement about what they’re doing on the issue of animal testing, or what they’re trying to do. And I’m a great believer in any proximate solution to problems.
So, as she says, there’s only one big issue on the table (animal testing) and she’s confident she can help solve that through ‘proximity’ alone. I want to trust Dame Roddict and her new-found millions (130 of ‘em) - and hell, she’s earned the right to make a buck at this point - but right now, we can only hope that her optimisim is justified - and not just post-rationalised.
(View the complete webcast/transcript)
Oh, just for the record, I sulked when Ben & Jerry’s was sold too…
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Jeez, that sucks. Not that I’m surprised, though- not after Pret sold out to Mc Donald’s…
Makes you cringe, doesn’t it? Like Cadbury Scweppes buying lovely Green and Black chocolate, or on the other side of the coin, Nestlé parading it’s new Fair Trade coffee as an example of corporate caring… One hopes the good will rub off on the bad, but experience tends to suggest otherwise. hey ho.
Perversely, I’d be much happier with the ’selling out’ if people were much more honest about the whole thing.
For example, if Roddick just said, ‘Yeah, well, I’ve done my bit, and now I just want to sit on the Riviera for the rest of my life’, I’d be much more sympathetic than after listening to ‘L’Oreal have promised to rethink animal testing! Honest!’.
Weirdly, two guys I really like for that: Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Scholes from eBay. Started eBay to create ‘global economic democracy’, and now they’re sunning themselves in France (or, in Scholes’ case, funding left-wing movies like Syriana - bless!).