Don’t bury Bhopal, charity urges US chemical giants
Howard Lake | 1 September 2017 | News
UK charity The Bhopal Medical Appeal is calling on two major US chemical companies, as they merge today, not to forget the survivors of the world’s worst industrial disaster.
The charity is taking the opportunity of the $130 billion merger today to deliver a blunt request to Dow Chemical and DuPont. “Don’t bury Bhopal” it argues.
The campaign uses a simple animated film to combine the corporate logos of Dow Chemical and DuPont. As the two logos merge together, they grow in size to fill the screen, forming a new logo that spells the word “DoNT”. The end of the film reveals the strapline “Don’t bury Bhopal”.
Bhopal 1984
The film and campaign, developed by agency Soul, highlights ongoing and widespread anger over Dow’s “stonewalling of victims” of the horrific 1984 gas disaster in Bhopal.
The charity says that critics argue that, ahead the merger, both Dow and DuPont are “deliberately hiding ongoing criminal, civil and environmental liabilities from shareholders”.
Controversy has surrounded the treatment of Bhopal survivors ever since Union Carbide’s pesticide factory released a huge cloud of toxic gas into the heart of the Indian city. More than half a million were exposed, and an estimated 25,000 people have died over time.
Toxic wastes dumped around the abandoned factory have since polluted local drinking water with poisonous chemicals. Today, the city suffers an epidemic of cancers and birth defects.
Dow Chemical completed a $9 billion merger with Union Carbide in 2001. European regulators cleared its proposed merger with DuPont in May this year.
The campaign is designed to force Dow Chemical and DuPont “to stop disregarding Bhopal victims’ health and basic rights”.
Colin Toogood of the Bhopal Medical Appeal explained: “Dow and DuPont’s merger will create the world’s largest chemical company, but it could also bury the world’s worst chemical disaster beneath a mountain of corporate red tape. New generations of Bhopalis are sick and dying. If enough people raise their voices together, Dow and DuPont will no longer be able to ignore their suffering.”
Soul
The campaign and film were developed by agency Soul.
Shaun Moran, the founder and creative director of Soul, said: “Our brief was to get the message across in a short, quick, and simple fashion. The idea does just that. We’re using this merger to create the simple message: ‘DoNT bury Bhopal.’”
The team involved were:
Creative Director: Shaun Moran
Head of Art: Paul Walton
Business Director: Iain Munro
Web Developer and Tech Support: John Richardson
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.