The newly appointed chief executive of Mars, Poul Weihrauch, has defended the environmental and social commitments made by brands (ESG) in the face of widespread scepticism.
Weihrauch has claimed that a company’s purpose need not be “enemies” with profit, telling the Financial Times that a company’s purpose is vital in attracting a young workforce.
The Mars CEO – who attained the role in September – has claimed that brands’ ESG commitments have become politicised and that political attacks on social and environmental commitments are “nonsense”.
“Quality companies are deeply invested in this and if I walk out of this office and I take a 25-year-old associate that has joined us from university they will want us to do this,” Weihrauch added.
“[Employees] won’t stay with us if we don’t care about ESG or purpose or whatever we call it. So from my chair, I think it’s a nonsense conversation. We don’t believe that purpose and profit are enemies.”
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In recent months, Mars-owned brand M&M’s’ social stance came under fire when it backtracked on an inclusive re-brand of its candy characters. The ‘spokescandies’ – which intended to represent ‘acceptance and inclusivity’ – were paused indefinitely after Fox News’ Tucker Carlson dubbed the rebrand as “Woke M&M’s” and condemned the brand for making the cartoon characters “less sexy”.
However, M&M’s played on the controversy and backlash by relaunching the ‘spokescandies’ during a Super Bowl advertisement. Weihrauch told the Financial Times that the ad generated 25 billion online impressions. He added: “There’s lots of sales and it’s difficult to keep up with the orders.”
