Nestlé: A Social Media Nightmare (B‪)‬

As the largest food and drink company in the world, Nestle S.A (Nestle) prides itself on a solid reputation built throughout the past 150 years. On March 17, 2010, the chairman of the board of directors was caught off guard because of a YouTube video created by the environmental activist group Greenpeace. The graphic and provocative video criticized Nestle for its use of palm oil in Nestle products. The video helped Greenpeace make a bold statement: Nestle products were leading to deforestation and the extinction of orangutans. Within 24 hours, the video had more than 100,000 views and anti-Nestle campaigns quickly emerged on Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks around the world. At the same time, Greenpeace activists dressed up as orangutans and protested at Nestle's headquarters and factories in Europe. Activists urged the company to stop sourcing palm oil from companies that destroy forests in the process.

But the real controversy that led Nestle into a public relations nightmare was the company's decision to censor material on the Internet and to issue its own controversial statements. Within 12 hours, Nestle's notoriety grew all over the Internet. Major news stations, such as CNN, aired the video and picked up the story of Nestle's poor consumer outreach. As Nestle discovered, its actions would take require a long recovery period. As Nestle's public relations department looked back at the trouble and problems provoked by a YouTube video, the chairman of the board wondered if this public relations nightmare could have been averted.