Goodricke ignores University’s Fairtrade stance with Nestlé event sponsorship deal
Goodricke College’s flagship event, ‘Playboy Mansion’, is to be sponsored by international food giant Nestlé, whose Rowntree division is based in York.
The event, which will take place on Friday week five, is being billed as ‘Playboy Mansion: Chocolate Encore’ with the Nestlé logo appearing on promotional material for the event. In exchange, Nestlé has given Goodricke 800 bars of chocolate for distribution at the event.
Nestlé are traditionally unpopular on university campuses due to their particularly controversial methods in the 1980s in marketing baby milk formula in the Third World.
Their activites provoked outrage in many quarters, and led to a boycott that is still supported in over 20 countries.
Andreas Masoura, one of Goodricke College’s Entertainments Representatives, said “Nestlé were keen to emphasise that this is a goodwill gesture”. Rob Wilson, another Goodricke Ents Rep, said “Our job is to put on the best events we can, with severely limited resources, not to uphold ethical stances. Everyone happily queues up to get a Kit-Kat Chunky from the numerous vending machines between lectures. We’re not even giving Nestlé any money. It’s just some free chocolate”.
The position taken by Goodricke in looking for sponsorship from a company such as Nestlé can be interpreted as contradictory in the light of current Students’ Union policy. The Ethical Investment Policy, passed last December, stated that the SU would “lobby the University to adopt an ethical investment policy”. The SU has previously been supportive of the Make Poverty History campaign and at one point resolved to “refuse publicity to Coca-Cola, in our publications, at Student Union events, and in our buildings”, although this has now been revoked.
Th!nk Week 2005 saw a vigorous debate take place in Vanbrugh between representatives of the Nestlé Corporation, the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Association, and Phil Wells, the former director of the Fairtrade Foundation. During the debate, Nestlé’s representative was closely questioned by students about the company’s commitment to Fairtrade, following the introduction of their Fairtrade range.
Molly Bird, the former SU Environment Officer, commented “Whilst I understand that Goodricke have done this to beef the popularity of their event, which is a good thing, it’s always good to explore other options. Many people have worked very hard to achieve York’s Fairtrade University status, and accepting sponsorship from a company with a reputation such as Nestlé’s undermines this good work”.
Fairtrade chocolate was provided at a previous Goodricke college event by the SU, and Bird said that she believed “the (new) Environment Officers would be willing to consider doing a similar thing in the future”.
Nestlé were unable to comment.
