Hey Super Supporters!

I am conscious that I have not updated you on my meeting with Clearcast and since I made another appearance on Talk Radio I thought now was a better time than ever.

So as you know last Wednesday I met with Chris Mundy, Managing Director of Clearcast to discuss the advert and about how I can get the advert overturned and shown on television.

Chris explained to me that the creative has been on the Greenpeace website for around four months which led to the association that Iceland and Greenpeace were too closely associated. Clearcast at present deem Greenpeace as “wholly political” or “mainly political” and that they are in talks with Greenpeace about this. When I asked for the remits of how to be deemed political, Clearcast were unable to provide me with this and informed me that it is up to the organisation to prove that they are not political based on their own metrics e.g. aims, mission, set-up, budget etc but generally speaking it should be around ¾ of non-political activities and if ¼ are political activities e.g. lobbying, that is okay.

When I probed further into why it had been banned as an advert from television yet shown across social media and on television through talk shows etc and why we see adverts such for breast enlargements or bears being locked in cages but not one that spreads a vital and important message, Clearcast admitted that there may be outdated laws and that reform may be needed. Clearcast informed me that as a organisation they have to have a neutral approach and that their hands are tied and whilst they accept responsibility for the advert not being approved they cannot take any action and that they cannot lobby or shape reform but are able to indicate where things work and don’t work. Clearcast said that that they have not had to publicly respond to an advert for seven to eight years and that there has been much confusion over the remits of responsibility and say that their original response and statement may have added to the confusion.

During the meeting we discussed the public response to the ban and today I spoke to TalkRadio about the fact that Clearcast to date have received over 3,500 emails about the campaign to release the ad and that some of these have been threatening and upsetting. I ensured them that whilst we encourage people to contact them, this campaign has always remained respectful and are appalled to hear that people have acted in this way.

So in summary, to move forward Greenpeace and Clearcast will need to work together for this advert to be shown. And after this, wider reform needs to be explored, so that in the future advertisements such as Iceland’s can be shown and help spread awareness and an important and much needed message.

We are sat at just under one million signatures and it is still being spoken about which is great news. Greenpeace have contacted me re their latest campaign too which I'm looking forward to working with them to help raise awareness and get more companies to use sustainable palm oil.

Thank you everyone for your continued support, sharing tweets and putting pressure on companies to make changes and take action. Please remember to do this with love and peace and not with acts of violence or hatred. For now, we need to be getting Greenpeace and Clearcast to work together to get the advert shown!

So we have two actions:

1. Remind Greenpeace and Clearcast how important it is to work together to get the advert shown on our television screens by retweeting this tweet!
 
2. Change your profile picture on social media to the one on my twitter account @_mark_topps with the hashtag # NewProfilePicForRangTan

I look forward to hearing from you all via social media and watching the great work you are doing to raise awareness and make a change!

Mark Topps

@_mark_topps