George Clooney’s endorsement of Nespresso: He Shouldn’t Have!
So guys, you know I’m the biggest fan of George Clooney in the world-wide-web (according to my own expert opinion) and I have to say I have been quite disturbed about the flak he keeps receiving because of endorsing Nespresso.
About the ads, I think they are pretty lame except for the first one “You’re talking about Nespresso, right?” Except for his rich and sensual voice, there is nothing noteworthy about them. But I guess you have to use the old celebrity-being-rebutted while giving autographs, etc. concept to get the masses interested in a new product.
Here’s the Nespresso advertisement I like
About the issue: Now that I’ve convinced you I am going to be all serious and critical and objective in this post by actually criticizing something that’s got George in it, let me get down to the details.
Give it up to George Clooney’s PR guys that this thing hadn’t been blown out of proportions. To be fair, George Clooney totally deserves all the shit he is currently getting and had gotten in the past by being Nespresso’s brand ambassador. Being a fan and an ultra-positive person in general, I have tried many times to articulate his defense for him.
For he hadn’t done much about it, except saying: “I’m not going to apologize to you for trying to make a living every once in a while”
Well, honeybum…you’ve gotta do better than that! You’ve surely pissed some people off here!
For those of you who are in loss as to what the heck is wrong with endorsing Nespresso, find below here some bulleted points that outline the problem. I am taking them from the blog of 66witches instead of some news outlet because, this was the first article that I could articulate a response for and I like talking to and talking about people who care rather than automated feed burners!
Pax Vobiscum, the author of this article clearly noted why she thinks George Clooney becomes the Hollywood Whore for endorsing Nespresso. Here I am bulleting them down in my own words (but not necessarily agreeing with everything).
- Nespresso, the espresso machine which uses aluminium pods to make coffee is ‘Not Needed’. It eliminates any chance of enjoying coffee making because ‘where the hell are the beans’ right? And secondly, there is no need to replace a thousand year old system with an autobot when we are perfectly happy making coffee as we’ve been doing. “I guess the benefits, if you can call them that, of the Nespresso device, are that you can make a reasonably OK cup of Joe, without: cleaning, needing to know anything about coffee; being able to hold a spoon or read.”
- Environmental hazard: Nespresso’s coffee pods are packaged with Aluminium that does not magically disappear once the pod goes into the machine. Instead it accumulates with hundreds of others in the waste compartment and is never recycled–because there is no frigging recycling system in place! First you bring in a machine nobody ever wanted and second you start giving polythene a tough competition with aluminium in crapping up the environment. And George Clooney, a supposed environmentalist (just because he bought a super environment-friendly car the Tesla Roadster and some other fancy/costly gadgets), is knowingly bringing such a magnanimous amount of toxic waste onto the planet by promoting a pointless machine #justforthemoney.
- Nestle, the badass: Associating himself with a company like Nestle that had caused great harm to the people and environment in Africa, itself proves how insincere he is in his advocacy of Darfur situation among others. Because
a. “Nestle is is still the subject of an International boycott over its baby milk products that have caused an estimated 1.5 million infant deaths in starving Africa.”
b. “Only a single Nestlé product out of 8,500 brands has been awarded the “Fair Trade” certification.”
c. “Nestle is featured on Corporate Watch as being guilty of massive corporate crimes from heinous labour violations to I-don’t-give-a-shit environmental practices and are even implicated in the deaths-by-assassination of several Union organizers.”
Read my response to Pax in the next article and why I think George Clooney’s humanitarian efforts are every bit pure and his stand justified, despite direct affiliation with the shitbags of Nestle. Posting it here coz I’m not sure it’s gonna pass Pax’s moderation (I am totally scared of her response btw. My good humored comments often got bitch-slap responses from a lot many bloggers 😦 ).
And here is her full article if you want to read, but I have to warn you Clooney Fans, it is pretty raw and blows hate waves on dear sweet George every step of the way (No offense Pax, but it is hard to digest when I’m not so deep into the cause as you are).
PS: Oh by the way, my favorite line:
Why in the name of everything right and good and strong and beautiful; why in the screaming, twisted, contorted, bloody FUCK does he need to make a little extra dough on the side by pimping himself out to the likes of Nespresso?
Man, ain’t that strong? 😛
George Clooney 
By the way darling, my name is not Pax Vobiscum, it’s Diana Trimble. My nom de e-plume is 66Witches. Don’t ever be scared of my responses – as you have seen by now, I always give a measured reply to an intelligent comment, even if it’s one disagreeing with me. I still think he’s a whore and also am of the understanding that the Save Darfur program has been counterproductive, but you are entitled to your opinion too and I’m glad to see that you are at least questioning his endorsement of Nestle brands. Pax Vobiscum (just means Peace be with you in Latin – I often sign off that way) Diana aka 66Witches xxx
August 1, 2010 at 8:29 am
Another case of a fan defending the actions of a ‘celebrity’ despite the actions being indefensible! Granted he wants to make money so he can keep living in the way in which he has become accustomed to and in the way he wants to but does he really have to do it by promoting a company that abuses the things that he is supposed to believe in? The answer is NO, he didn’t have to but he did it anyway. Why? I have come up with a few possibilities, (if you think of any more then let me know) he was too ignorant or too unintelligent and didn’t know that Nestle was a bad company, thats hard to believe considering how much he is supposed to know about human rights and the work he has ‘done’ for human aid. Nestle lied to him and told him they were an all good company now and he took their word for it without doing his own unbiased research. Or he didn’t care enough and did it for the money. You decide!
I can’t do anything about celebrities promoting bad companies because they want the money, all I can do is boycott those celebrities and the products/companies they promote. But i do object when they say one thing that makes them look really good in the media, they get awards and acclaim for doing and saying these good things which get promoted like crazy and then give up these ‘principles’ for the money which they don’t actually need! I will comment further on the other blog post that refers to this issue…
May 22, 2011 at 7:35 am
Maybe he actually likes the coffee. I must admit apart from a few amazing cups of coffee I have enjoyed Nespresso does make consistantly decent coffee.
July 26, 2012 at 7:10 am