“An Unrepeatable photograph?” is a short documentary produced by a Spanish Chocolate company launched to create awareness about the deforestation caused by palm oil. Beyond expectations, and after unleashing the international palm oil lobby reaction, it saved a part of a Borneo rainforest.

The documentary was promoted with 3 trailers and the “unrepeatable photograph?” in Spanish national magazines, but the best promotion was the controversy it provoked and the palm oil lobby reactions to it.

This content made the audience think about the consequences of the ingredient and its hidden interests, and had huge impact on Trapa Chocolates' distribution/sales.

Trapa Chocolates was an old-fashioned Spanish brand, with a bad perception, and so stuck in the past that their buyers were getting older (+65 women). It was being removed from supermarkets after competing without success against multinational companies (Ferrero, Nestlé…).

Trapa was so damaged that it was recently sold to a new owner. So to relaunch the brand, we settled a new brand purpose, and it was decided:

- to renew the whole production chain in order to be more sustainable

- to remove palm oil from all their products

So the objective of this project was:

- To relaunch the brand, communicating the removal of palm oil.

- Reach younger audiences (specially “consciuous women” 25-45).

- To stop being taken out of supermarkets.

How did a Spanish chocolate company’s piece of content save a part of a rainforest in Borneo?

We travelled to Borneo to photograph a rainforest that was scheduled to be deforested in a matter of weeks. And we launched a documentary to warn that, in the event of that location being deforested, we would come back to take another photo exactly the same spot to show the consequences of palm oil production.

In the same region, we interviewed the International Animal Rescue Chairman (the NGO had recently recorded a viral video of an orangutan fighting against a bulldozer) to let him put the palm oil problem in context.

We hired a well known Spanish fashion photographer and a Russian model to make the authorities believe it was a harmless fashion shoot and not a critical documentary.

Once we launched the documentary, the immediate palm oil lobby’s reactions made the rest.

92% of spaniards consider palm oil as harmful to health, but they don’t think about health when eating chocolates. They think about pleasure.

Removing palm oil would be listening to them, but talking about health would imply reducing the perception of pleasure.

Besides, Spaniards don’t know about the palm oil deforestation, since it was a far from us problem. So we decided to raise awareness about it, in a challenging way.

To attract new audiences, we formally mixed different production codes:

o reality show programs: provoking a situation and hiding from the authorities.

o documentary interviews: T. Bangun, International Animal Rescue Chairman.

And, in the promotion we also mixed different codes:

o activist techniques: a veiled warning.

o fashionable appearance: A Spanish well know fashion photographer + a Russian model.

This combination attracted the Spanish journalists and strongly shocked our competitors, creating a new and organic audience for the documentary.

Promotion: 3 trailers started 10 days before the launch, alongside the photo, published in national magazines.

November 2018. The documentary was online.

In less than 1 week, the palm oil lobby, led by powerful chocolate multinationals, threatened us privately asking the withdrawal of the documentary. 7 weeks later, they sued us. We didn’t withdraw it, and we made the sue public, attracting new audiences to the documentary.

March 2019. The Government of Indonesia denied our visa to return to Borneo. We had no choice but to hire a satellite that revealed a ridiculous truth: they had deforested all, except the piece of land where we had taken the photograph, in order to avoid a second photo with a deforested background.

21 March (International Forests Day). We published the update, including the satellite image, and how palm oil lobby reactions led into that point, reaching new audiences and sparking the debate.

“A Spanish Chocolate company’s documentary saves a piece of rainforest in Borneo”, according to newspapers.

Trapa challenged the category with a critical/activist attitude, and through entertainment: with a piece of content that became unavoidable because of all controversy it generated.

Breaking the conventions of the category (push advertising about pleasure/flavor attributes) this attitude was supported by several NGOs and embraced as a “David against Golliat” adventure story, “letting us have a conscious choice” but also “fighting and taking risks for us” in consumers’ words.

2,3M views

95,7% positive reviews

PR qualitative reached audience: 25,1M (68,5% of all Spanish adults).

222M PR impacts (9 contacts per person average), sparking an even bigger debate about deforestation.

+ 73% "palm oil" searches, so it not only raised awareness but awaken an unprecedented curiosity in Spain about the ingredient.

+ 47% "Trapa" searches.

+ New distribution in supermarkets (Carrefour, Auchan…).

+ 51% sales