Dove Onslaught[er] from Daniel Bird on Vimeo.
This is a response to Dove's Onslaught viral I produced and cut for Greenpeace. The campaign aimed to halt the destruction of the Indonesian rainforest for the production of palm oil. Unilever is one of the biggest culprits. Dove, their 'socially responsible' brand, was the Achilles heel we aimed for.
The video went viral on Youtube. To quote the Wall Street Journal:
"...the environmental group claimed a high-profile victory when the consumer-products giant reversed its policy and said it would only buy palm oil from suppliers who can demonstrate they didn't cut down forests.
The speed of the campaign marks a big moment for activist groups. The Greenpeace ad has been on Youtube.com for just a week and was watched 250,000 times..."
The footage of Azizah, the girl, was shot by Greenpeace's video producer, Maarten van Rouveroy. He had plenty of other things to shoot whilst he was in Indonesia, and had only a day to dedicate to the shot - including casting. It was pure a miracle that the right girl was in the right place at the right time... in the Indonesian rainforest. I honestly thought he would never get what I was looking for, and was in the process of desperately organising a greenscreen shoot with an Indonesian girl in Amsterdam when he came back with the tapes (there'd been little contact with him whilst he'd been out there).