[MK Chris]

Now I know this is fairly old now, and I was planning on asking Kendra her opinion (I think I know what that is anyway) if I managed to get to London to meet her... But anyway. For those of you that don't know, the Slim*Fast brand is owned by Unilever. In the states Whoopi Goldberg is (or was) the spokesperson for Slim*Fast.

A few weeks ago Goldberg went to a charity do and made comments about George Bush, comparing him to some part of her female anatomy (which, with a name like Bush, I can only speculate as to what that may be...) Unilever were then inundated with emails from angry Americans saying they would never buy another Unilever product until they sacked her - so they did. Then there were thousands more emails, some saying 'thank god you sacked her', but the others saying 'what the f*ck happened to free speech?'

I'm interested in whether people over here have been following this (working on the Unilever UK Carelines and doing overtime on Unilever.com to clear the backlog this has caused, I have had to) and if so what their opinions are?

[kendra k]

man. so many incidents like this have been happening in the US. free speech has gone by the wayside to cow-towing to the current administration. quite sad.

[tombugler]

reading that made me dizzy.

[Dickie]

so you can read then tom?

[kendra k]

he must have to read aloud... and hence got dizzy from shortness of breath.

[MK Chris]

The thing is that Unilever is not even an American company (although I believe Slim Fast originated as an American brand before Unilever bought it) and IMO they have no business to sack Whoopi Goldberg for what she said in her free time, especially when everyone knew what she was like before she was employed as SlimFast spokesperson.

[kendra k]

yeah, but people are just playing it safe. who drinks slim fast? fat women from the midwest. who voted for bush? a lot of fat women from the midwest. it's the same reason linda rondstadt got in trouble two weeks ago.

speaking of fat... ralph nader says michael moore needs to lose weight. he really does.

[MK Chris]

But people know (or find out) who Slim Fast is associated with and consequently won't buy Persil (or Wisk in the US), or any other of their products any more.

I've never heard of Linda Rondstadt..

[Sidders]

Free speach always exists, but you don't necessarily have to give someone a platform on which they can say whatever they want. For example, you can say what you like about Leicester City outside our house, but if you slag Leicester City off inside our house, don't go moaning about free speach when you land on your arse through the nearest available exit.

[Toast]

Hahaha, class post, Sidders.

[Adam]

Your job sounds interesting. Does it not depress you reading all the moans? Seems theres more neg. comments then pos. comments..

[MK Chris]

That's only cos very few people ring and compliment products they're happy with - far more, though, are quick to call when something goes wrong. It's quite boring, I'm after other stuff.

[Adam]

Unilever is a massive company, there's bound to be plenty of jobs in other departments.

[MK Chris]

Yeah but technically I don't work directly for Unilever, I work for an outsource.

[Adam]

Oh.

Get in with Unilever. Surely you can give the nice HR lady a call going.

Give us a job..

[Ickle Angel]

He doesnt want to work for them anymore lol

[weekend24uk]

The thing is that Unilever is not even an American company (although I believe Slim Fast originated as an American brand before Unilever bought it) and IMO they have no business to sack Whoopi Goldberg for what she said in her free time, especially when everyone knew what she was like before she was employed as SlimFast spokesperson.

Glaxo SmithKline is the way forward; either that of the Youngs Modulus. Tensile stress over tensile strain innit!!!