An Open Letter To Nestle

02.20.10

Nestle, it has come to my attention that you aren’t just food. There’s been a thirty year boycott of your products, and frankly it’s an easy one for me. Ever since you added HFCS to the Abuelita Coco, you don’t have many  products that my family will miss (we will miss Pellegrino).

Well, I just found out about Loreal. I’ve got a bit of a thing for Loreal. I understand that Loreal is an enemy of the environment, but I make good on so many of my other decisions that I’ve decided that I’m entitled to good hair. Oh, but of course Nestle owns part of Loreal.

Nestle, it appears that you and I need to talk. I’m not prepared to change hair products without a fight and I believe that you want to not suck respect the health of women and babies (which basically means everyone in the world).

You and I, we’re about 30 minutes away from each other. I want to meet with you, because if I have to change my hair color products I’ll go out screaming and yelling.

No PR, no spin, no bullshit.

323.205.5377 call me. I’ll even have you here to my house for lunch.

  • http://attorneyatmom.blogspot.com Caroline

    Good luck.

  • http://lagniappemarketing.net/birdonawire deb@BIRDONAWIRE

    neva neva neva give it up! you still rock in my book..

  • http://heyladyjane.blogspot.com Shandy

    Good Luck!

  • http://www.elisesramblings.com Elise

    Pellegrino?? Really?? You just ruined my day. hrumpf!!! I guess I switch to perrier….
    Let me know if you get their attention, I don’t care what my hair looks like but I love my pellegrino.
    Elise

    • Jessica Gottlieb

      Nestle own Perrier in full.

      May I suggest you also ask to speak to them?

  • http://www.bodyforwife.com BodyForWife

    The only thing I boycott is Nickelback, because they really, really suck.

  • http://www.notjustaworkingmom.com Nicole

    Surprisingly I looked at Nestle and Ovaltine powdered chocolate and neither has HFCS…Ovaltine actually has some food coloring for some reason I cannot fathom, but not Nestle. I was shocked but Nestle has so many other issued I still don’t want to buy it. Keep us posted. Just need to find other ways to get my kid his calcium…he refuses most forms of milk, even that yummy organic chocolate sauce, but is such a healthy eater I really wanted to give him this.

  • http://www.MarVistaMom.com Sarah Auerswald

    Any response yet?

    And try Garnier Fructisse hair color, I mean product. Who owns them?

    Bummer about the bubbly water. I guess I’ll have to call them, too.

  • http://mommamaegan.blogspot.com/2009/04/mmmfructose.html Maegan

    Lots of companies use HFCS…is Nestle the only one you boycott? Just curious. I understand why the food industry wants to use it. It’s cheap, it keeps for a long time, it mixes well. Although, I don’t see that any savings have been passed on to the consumer b/c they get to use this cheaper product. I actually blogged about some important HFCS stuff last year: [see url] I tried to word it in a way that made it easier to understand…especially since the Corn Refiner’s have got their little commercials outs!

    • http://JessicaGottlieb.com Jessica Gottlieb

      the boycott is 30 years old, it’s a result of Nestle’s relentless marketing of baby formula in an unsafe manner, particularly in undeveloped countries where the use of baby formula and contaminated water leads to infant death.

  • http://www.mybottlesup.com nic @mybottlesup

    if anyone can do it, you can. i want pics of the luncheon though.

  • http://www.bestforbabes.org Bettina

    It was painful for me to give up Pellegrino also (just the bottles on my table connected me with my sister who lives in Rome) but I am now deliriously happy with sodaclubusa.com. You control the fizz, there are fun flavors, and no more lugging bottles or feeling guilty about the environment, let alone Nestle’s grossly unethical corporate behavior. Did you catch that they are hiring a PR firm to launch a charm offensive after suffering from the Twitterstorm last fall?

  • http://postpartumillness.com Lucy

    Wow good luck with that. I can totally understand the hair issue.

  • http://www.mommyhoodexposed.blogspot.com Monique

    Just RT-ed- I am also not a fan of Nestle for the very same reasons. So sad that a company that markets so children get away with something like this!

  • http://minglemediatv.com Stephanie @TheDigitalMoms

    After a 30 year global boycott…. certainly Nestle could have cleaned up their act – taken the hit financially and would be a good corporate citizen by now. So either they have a plan and proof they are fixing the issues and want to educate the consumer about how they are doing it or they are going to use a PR firm to continue to dress them up, and hopefully produce so much fluff that no one will realize it’s still status quo.

    I vote for being a nice corporate citizen, but since that requires lots of money (shareholders don’t like to lose profits) to fix things, a company the size of Nestle will not make major changes to how they treat their consumer, (manufacturing, distribution and ingredients) they will only hit the high notes and I’m guessing this 30 year boycott will have legs 30 years from now…

    Of course, if no one talks about it, then it doesn’t matter, so my hat’s off to you – I can have a film crew there and stream the meeting live :-)

  • joan

    Damn it! I was going to suggest Purelogy products for your hair but I just Googled & found out it is owned by, you guessed it, L’Oreal!

  • N

    Even if there’s no HFCS, Ovaltine does use genetically modified ingredients: http://www.consumersunion.org/food/gefny999.htm

  • http://katietalksabout.com katie

    It killed me to find out Skinny Cow was owned by Nestle, but I’ve bid them adieu. Thankfully I use Nice & Easy! Good luck!

  • http://www.mommaruthsays.com mommaruthsays

    What about Pantene? P&G isn’t so bad, is it?

    Jessica, I just want you to know the impact you’ve made on me. Yes, it may seem silly to leave this comment on a post about Nestle and haircare, but regardless – here it is. Before I started reading your blog, I never really looked at the flipside of things. Or the deeper, true meanings. I’ve always been an “on the level” kind of gal when it comes to my thinking and my decision making. You’ve honestly inspired me to dig deeper and to see things not only two but three or four or fifty different ways, through all different kinds of eyes. I am very grateful for your blog.

    Not only do you give me courage to stand up for what I believe in, but you give me reason to think before I speak and to investigate further, always further to find the real truth.

    Oh, and you have great hair.

    • http://JessicaGottlieb.com Jessica Gottlieb

      P&G is imperfect but they have some good brands under them. My husband and my kids use Pantene, and I used to, but they don’t have a product that works well if you’ve had Keratin Treatments. Loreal has the best shampoo if you’ve had a Keratin treatment, however, I can’t really justify good hair over the health of tiny babies, so I think I’ve bought my last Loreal product.

    • http://adjunctmom.wordpress.com Beth

      Given that P&G has made me cry every day of the Olympics so far, my husband is far less fond of them today than he was a week and a half ago. Hasn’t reached boycott level yet, but he’d very much like them to buy him a box of tissues.

  • http://lotsoflaundry.blogspot.com Kim @ Beautiful Wreck

    This could get interesting.

  • http://myembellishedtruth.com churchpunkmom

    L’oreal? Damnit. Time for a new hair color brand. UGH, Nestle.

  • http://www.delthedad.com Del The Dad

    With all the Nestle problems coming to light last year, I have kept an eye on what Nestle sells that I USED to buy.

    Nestle is worldwide and they deal in the production of supplemental powders (ie: baby formule, milk, other). Much money is made from taking minerals and chemicals to make products that can be a replacement for the real deal. When I lived in Nigeria, Nestle was very POPULAR in the media and poster boards situated around town. That was almost 15 years ago, but now it makes a little more sense.

    I have been avoiding Nestle products all together and you brought up another issue of them and people. Good luck with talking with them, they pretty much avoided online media outlets and maybe they think if they ignore it, it will all go away.

    Del
    http://www.delthedad.com

  • http://www.greenandcleanmom.org Sommer

    Jessica,

    I love your letter and how it is not formal, B.S. or fluff. I really hope something comes of this or at least a phone call for crying out loud!

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  • http://wwwmhairbymiranda.ca @mirandababy

    Got a heads up from @phdinparenting that you were looking for some colour advice. I have several suggestions but none are very helpful unless I know why you colour your hair. Grey coverage, to lighten, tone change etc.

  • http://www.organicmania.com Lynn from OrganicMania.com

    Jessica,

    I’ll be very, very interested to see what comes of this!

    I have been amazed by the large corporate brands that spend oodles to court “mom bloggers” and yet when one asks them directly for a meeting or to answer a question.. (as you’re doing now and as I did with J&J before the “toxic tub” carnival ) …they ignore them, particularly if it’s a “scary” blogger…ie, a strong, well informed, independent woman (who by the way happens to be a consumer first and foremost). Did you know that many PR firms advise brands to ignore complaints and questions like these? They’re hoping you …and PhD in Parenting…and others…will go away, or that they can drown out your concerns with lots of fluffy advertising and outreach to less critical Mom bloggers. (ie, Mom bloggers who can be “bought.” )

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  • http://www.marvelouskiddo.blogspot.com leigh

    The conversation continues to build, over at my blog, where I posted one of your videos. I would love to have you weigh in again! http://marvelouskiddo.blogspot.com/2010/03/boycotting-nestle.html
    Thanks for prompting me into action on this, Jessica!