In marketing terms it’s a match made in moneymaking heaven - but George Clooney, king of cool turned emperor of the coffee-pod people, may be serving up a less-than-perfect brew as a caffeine pitchman.
Clooney promotes a product whose invasion of our homes may come with serious environmental consequences.
Now, Clooney’s corporate partner Nespresso - market leader in a coffee-capsule sector that has grown by almost 1000 per cent in five years - faces having to defend its ”sustainability program” to the federal consumer watchdog.
Jon Dee - head of environmental group DoSomething and founder of National Recycling Week, Planet Ark and National Tree Day - says he will write to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission next week asking it to investigate the truth of the company’s recycling advertising.
A series of Nespresso sustainability advertisements featuring the company’s recycling program use Clooney - appearances in addition to his commercials plugging the ubiquitous aluminium coffee pods that are causing the waste problem, alongside the plastic pods made by some of Nespresso’s competitors.
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It shows the Clooney effect has undoubtedly been enormous in this. But George Clooney - for a guy who is so switched on to civil rights and other issues - to lead the charge in causing such environmental damage and waste and other issues is really disappointing
Jon Dee, head of environmental group DoSomething
”George Clooney has almost single-handedly launched an entire new waste stream globally as a result of fronting the Nespresso adverts,” Mr Dee said.
”It shows the Clooney effect has undoubtedly been enormous in this. But George Clooney - for a guy who is so switched on to civil rights and other issues - to lead the charge in causing such environmental damage and waste and other issues is really disappointing.”
Australia has embraced the pod phenomenon as fervently as the rest of the world - industry analysts say it’s about taking our ”cafe culture” into the home, with capsule machines making it easy to brew a decent cup with little mess or fuss - but lots of new household waste.
For the coffee industry, ”the Clooney effect” has been a gold mine - but it now faces the headache of dealing with the consequences of a stunningly rapid shift in consumer behaviour.
Geoff Parker, head of the Australian Beverages Council, says ”the craze of the pods” is driving at-home coffee consumption.
”Certainly the Clooney factor would have to be a contributing reason why that sector has increased so much.” Mr Parker says coffee is now the most consumed beverage in the land, second only to water. ”It makes up 15 per cent of all the beverages that we drink. We drink 5 billion cups of coffee a year.”
Continue reading here on what Nespresso and another coffee manufacturer says about the issue.
