Alison Taylor, Chief Executive Officer:

In life, there is little worse than having your trust betrayed. Whether it’s a personal or professional betrayal, the response can be something akin to the stages of grieving, with varying degrees of denial and disbelief, anger, disappointment and, finally, acceptance that, yet again, someone or something has proved themselves unworthy of your expectations of them.

When collective trust is lost due to the actions of a public figure or a big brand, mass grieving can be almost palpable. This is what I imaged the public response would be when I read this week’s news that Unilever, the giant of innovative thinking and action in social and environmental issues has, under new leadership, cut back on its targets for virgin plastic use, the result of which will be the use of an extra 100,000 tons of fresh plastic each and every year. This is just one of the changes the new CEO is making in the interests of shareholders’ financial gain, including scrapping its commitments to diversity and inclusion, as well as its pledge to halve food waste through operations by 2025, abandoning its pledge to the living wage, and more.

From a communications perspective, I believe that this is a massive mistake. Consumers who have been wooed by the promise that Unilever’s brands will behave with ethics and morals, respecting the environment and people, have, in one fell swoop, been shown that their trust is completely misplaced and, indeed, worth nothing at all to the manufacturer they have spent their hard earned cash with. I’m pleased to see so much collective ‘grief’ now playing out on social channels as people, customers of Unilever products, express their anger, disbelief and disappointment at this short-sighted and selfish corporate behaviour.

From a corporate responsibility standpoint, Unilever should be setting an example to others, as it has done now for decades. So, I hope that other organisations have the strength of character and commitment not to see Unilever’s behaviour as an excuse to put their own profit ahead of the planet. We have so little time to make the changes we need to, so that we can leave this world in a fit state for future generations. I ‘trust’ that the reverse will be true and that companies will see an opportunity to leverage Unilever’s betrayal as a platform from which to shout about their own ESG commitments and progress, and prove to their customers and stakeholders that their own trust has not been misplaced. The upshot for them will be a stronger and more resilient brand proposition which will attract investment, customers, followers and secure their organisation’s future prosperity, without compromising on the things that really matter.