Kleercut.Net Kimberly-Clark and Kleenex are wiping away ancient forests

When tissue giant and forest destroyer Kimberly-Clark launched a $100 million advertising blitz for its Cottonelle brand, activists were there to greet them on the first day.

The set-up was as silly as it was expensive: Cottonelle paid for a strange-looking dog-bus filled with public relations folks to tour New York City and urging people to “be kind to your behind.” This, apparently, was supposed to sell toilet paper.

But things don’t always go smoothly when you are selling products that destroy ancient forests. Before long, people began asking Cottonelle reps tough questions about the Boreal forest, recycled fiber and other issues they’d rather ignore. Cottonelle’s day spiraled down the drain from there.

High profile companies like Kimberly-Clark, Sears, and Best Buy accused of fuelling the destruction of Canada’s Boreal Forest

March 27, 2008 Four Greenpeace activists have been arrested after attempting to unfurl a massive 3.1 x 34 metre banner inside Toronto’s Eaton Center. The message: “Sears, Best Buy, Indigo Books, Toys “R” Us, Canadian Tire and Kleenex = Boreal Forest Destruction.”

WEShop, the Wesleyan University store has discontinued the use of Kimberly-Clark products opting to replace Kleenex products with alternative brands high in recycled content. The two students behind the campaign consider the WEShop victory an important step but intend to escalate the campus campaign until all campus facilities are free of Kimberly-Clark products. Take a look at the campus newspaper article detailing the win.

Will University of Vermont Drop Kimberly-Clark Next?

This week the student led University of Vermont Forest Crimes Unit has been pushing for a similar victory against Kimberly-Clark and in the process they've caught the attention of local media. To watch the nightly news feature broadcast in the Northeastern US please click here.

The UVM campaign has also been covered by The Vermont Cynic, National Student News Service, and The Water Tower.

Kleenex brand tissue products and its manufacturer Kimberly-Clark scored a failing grade of 'E' on a tissue product scorecard released in the UK by Greenpeace. They received this grade because Kimberly-Clark uses no recycled fibre in Kleenex tissue products in the UK or in North America and the company buys much of its virgin fibre from clearcut areas in Canada’s Boreal Forest.

Though Kimberly-Clark has promised to begin to buy fibre from responsibly managed forests in the future for its UK products, the company continues to manufacture disposable products for the North American marketplace from destructive sources of fibre and with no recycled content. They are wiping out the habitat of threatened woodland caribou and further degrading the last pristine and intact areas of the Boreal Forest.

Remember when a Kleenex commercial crew was surprised by Greenpeace activists in New York City this spring? Well, it’s happened again.

This time, Kimberly-Clark showed up outside Wrigley Field – home of the Chicago Cubs. As usual, they invited the public to sit on a couch and "let it out" to a fake shrink. What they didn’t consider was the irony of advertising Kleenex at a Cubs game while destroying habitat for cubs (and bears) in the Boreal Forest.

You could say they walked right into the pitch.