Charity accuses Finsbury of profiting from tribes destruction
WPP-owned public relations company Finsbury is the latest agency to be confronted with direct action from a charity over a client, British mining company Vedanta. Survival International held a protest outside Finsbury’s offices yesterday (May 28).
Survival International says Vedanta’s subsidiary Sterlite is set to destroy one of India’s most isolated tribes – the Dongria Kondh – by mining aluminium ore from the Niyamgiri mountains in Orissa. Protesters held placards stating: “Finsbury profits from tribe’s destruction” and handed leaflets to employees as they arrived for work.
Survival International director Stephen Corry says: “Finsbury cannot continue to parrot that the mine will benefit the tribe, which it will, in reality, destroy.
“Unless corporations take collective responsibility for their and their clients’ actions, human rights will remain empty rhetoric.”
Finsbury has offices in London and Brussels and specialises in financial PR, investor relations and regulatory services through retained clients, M&A and IPO activities, as well as situations such as crisis management.
Greenpeace is also lobbying marketing services agencies in a shift in its strategy (MW April 24). Last month, protesters dressed as orangutans also infiltrated Unilever’s Merseyside headquarters and gathered at its London offices and roster agencies including Ogilvy in protest over its alleged use of palm oil.
