The Solution Zone - 06/23/11

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Topic: KEN DUMPS BARBIE FOR KILLING TIGERS!

Guest: Rolf Skar – Greenpeace www.greenpeace.org - Senior Forest Campaigner

Ken has dumped Barbie indefinitely upon discovering her shocking dirty secret -- her packaging is made from the wood grown in the rain forests of Indonesia! Thus Barbie is responsible for destroying thousands of acres of rainforest and rapidly eliminating much of the habitat of the endangered Sumatran Tiger, of which only 40 breeding pairs remain.

It a brilliant global marketing move Greenpeace has used the Barbie/Ken breakup campaign to highlight the fact that Mattel Disney, Hasbro and Lego have been wrapping their toys in paper made from rainforest wood, harvested by the company Asia Pulp & Paper- APP, one of the world's largest producers of wood products, which has leveled vast sections of rain forest over the last two decades.

Greenpeace hopes that the campaign will help to shaming APP customers such as Mattel into canceling their contracts. As a result Mattel has spoken out and claimed they will address the issue.  While pleased, Rolf Skar comments that Greenpeace will adopt a wait and see attitude, is terms of whether Mattel actually moves to discontinue use of APP paper products.