Tim Newman, Campaigns Assistant, International Labor Rights Forum
Chocolate giant Mars, Inc. has recently launched a new chocolate bar specifically marketed to women. "Fling" bars have less than 85 calories and come in bright pink packaging. According to the product website, Fling is meant to "celebrate the female spirit." You may be wondering exactly what the "female spirit" entails. Well, according to Mars, they are referring to that "unapologetically feminine playful, naughty, flirtatious, and alluring nature that brings shimmer into the world." The website goes on to say: "At under 85 calories per finger, it's slim, but not skinny. Indulgent but not greedy. Naughty but nice." The ad campaign is unabashedly over-sexualized and offensive -- playing to the lowest common denominator of gender stereotypes as well as contributing to harmful body images. NPR has an interesting piece on the advertising here.
In addition to the upsetting sexist assumptions on which the ad campaign is based, the ads also serve to mask the company's purchasing policies which are indeed quite "greedy" and "naughty." So who are the people who grow the main ingredient in Fling chocolate and do they get to experience the same pleasure promised to women who consume Mars chocolate here in the US?
We write frequently on this blog about ongoing problems of trafficked and child labor on cocoa farms in West Africa that supply for major chocolate companies like Mars. Since 2001, people all around the world have been calling for Mars and other companies like Hershey and Nestle to support Fair Trade and stop exploiting cocoa farmers in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. One of the major reasons why labor rights are not protected on cocoa farms is that farmers do not receive a fair price for cocoa beans, forcing them to put kids to work and cut back on labor costs. Mars and other companies have been funding various programs in West Africa for years without much of an improvement on the ground (check out our update report from last year for more). Part of the problem is that these companies never acknowledge how their purchasing policies specifically result in labor rights abuses and trap cocoa farmers in an ongoing cycle of poverty -- far from the "indulgent" lifestyle embodied by the Fling bar. Mars recently made some new sustainability commitments, but they are not as strong as they need to be.
Meanwhile, other companies have worked directly with cocoa farmers in building a fair and just model for cocoa growing. One example is Divine Chocolate which sources its cocoa from the Kuapa Kokoo Fair Trade cocoa cooperative in Ghana and is co-owned by the farmers themselves. One of the most important parts of the way Kuapa Kokoo operates is through empowering the leadership of women in their democratic cooperative. I recommend checking out these videos to see Kuapa Kokoo farmers talk about what the cooperative and Divine Chocolate mean to them -- especially this video of Comfort Kumeah, national secretary of Kuapa Kokoo. You can check out other chocolate companies who have committed to a high bar ethical cocoa sourcing policy here and ILRF's chocolate buying guide here.
While Mars' Fling bar is designed to appeal to insulting stereotypes of women and their corporate policies contribute to poor living and working conditions for women cocoa farmers and their families, I hope that consumers will support companies that take the empowerment of women and the protection of workers' rights seriously. We've had way too many years of "naughty" treatment from chocolate companies like Mars.
One more thing... For more about the marketing strategy for the Fling bar when Mars released them in New Zealand, check out the video below.
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