WWF attacks planned BP pipeline in ads
The WWF has taken out a full-page ad attacking BP, the oil company which positions itself as environmentally friendly, for a pipeline project that it says will have a disastrous environmental impact.
The WWF (formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund) is threatening to extend its campaign against the company to consumers if it is unsuccessful in getting investors to withdraw from the project. The full-page ads in the Financial Times, created by WWAV Rapp Collins, criticise the gulf between the company’s green rhetoric and its involvement in the project.
The 1,700km pipeline would stretch from the Caspian Sea, through politically volatile and environmentally sensitive areas in Georgia and Azerbaijan, to the Turkish Mediterranean coast.
BP has faced repeated pressure from lobby groups since spending &£60m in 2000 on a repositioning and relaunch as “Beyond Petroleum” with a new green logo.
A campaigner for the WWF says: “BP is not the most responsible company and is not fulfilling the promises of its rebrand.”
A spokesman for BP responds: “We think this project is directly in line with our green positioning. We disagree with the WWF and a full environment impact survey was carried out.”
Rival oil company Esso has had to endure the Stop Esso campaign, co-ordinated by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and People & Plant, which encourages a consumer boycott following Esso’s opposition to the Kyoto Protocol in 2001.
