You can add yet another scalp to the most effective environmental pressure campaign we’ve seen so far this year. Greenpeace New Zealand has gone on the offensive once again, this time against Fonterra, one of the world’s largest dairy companies, using Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to expose its alleged destruction of virgin rainforest to cultivate palm kernel. By our count, this is the fourth major brand Greenpeace has gone after in this way in the past seven months; others such as Burger King and Nestlé quickly felt the pressure and caved. Will Fonterra be next?

Greenpeace NZ sent us note last night alerting us to a new video they published to the web, the centerpiece of a Fonterra “parody” site that delivers some stingers. As it did in the highly successful Nestlé “orangutan” campaign, the video goes for the gross-out effect as a woman, fresh from her morning jog, downs a cold glass of milk that hides a nasty surprise. (Ok, no spoilers from us).

Fonterra looks particularly unprepared to deal with Greenpeace’s pressure tactics. The dairy giant has a meager social media presence to begin with, and it appears to be falling into the same trap that burned Nestlé: i.e., deleting critical posts from its Facebook Wall and creating a furore where there was none earlier.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace has amassed 4,420 digital signatures, pledging to “Tell Fonterra to stop importing palm kernel for the further industrialisation of New Zealand dairying.”

As we reported in early September it took Burger King just a few days to announce on its Facebook page it would be ditching Indonesian palm oil producer Sinar Mas from its list of suppliers as Greenpeace heaped on the pressure that the company was devastating rain forest for its palm plantations. It was a tactic eerily similar to the one it deployed in getting Nestle’ to do the same. Not surprisingly, it’s using the same strategy against Fonterra. And, the company appears to be doing little other than antagonizing its critics as we see here:

It’s a strange site indeed to see such vitriol associated with a dairy brand that uses tranquil, bucolic images in its marketing. In any event, Fonterra’s text-book social media unpreparedness looks destined to turn an ongoing dispute with the local Greenpeace chapter into a cause célèbre for eco-warriors everywhere. It also may earn the company a place on our growing list of big brand social media screw-ups.

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