Boston, MA – At this year’s Quidditch World Cup, the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) officially re-launched the “Not In Harry's Name” campaign. This effort, which began in November 2010, asks Warner Bros. (WB) to make all Harry Potter chocolate products Fair Trade. The HPA is giving Warner Bros. until midnight on New Year’s Eve to respond to the HPA’s most recent
letter. In previous months HPA Executive Director Andrew Slack has amicably discussed the matter with WB, including CEO Barry Meyer. However, WB has since stopped communication with the HPA on the issue and insists that the company it employs to make Harry Potter chocolate, Behr’s Chocolates, meets ethical sourcing standards while a third party company, Free 2 Work, has given Warner Bros. practices an "F" rating. This grade indicates that it there is a reasonable chance that chocolate sold in Harry Potter’s name has been made by children kidnapped from their homes and forced to work as slaves on the Ivory Coast.
"Imagine children at the Wizarding World in Orlando, Florida buying chocolate that comes from children the same age as them who have been kidnapped and forced into slavery,” said Slack. “We have given WB more than a year to process this reality and they have ultimately decided to ignore our requests to prove their “F” grade false. We’re giving them until New Year’s to either show us beyond reasonable doubt that this report is wrong or to finally meet with us in person and work out a solution to make all Harry Potter chocolate Fair Trade.”
During the month of December, the HPA is asking members to make video messages to WB, expressing their right as Harry Potter fans to know if the cocoa in Harry Potter chocolate is coming from child slavery. These videos will be posted on a special YouTube channel,
MuggleHowlers. HPA members are also sending
cease and desist letters, demonstrating that, in Slack’s words, “while Warner Bros. may own intellectual property, they do not own the intellect. They do not own the spirit of these books which we grew up with.”
The HPA has also produced its own, HPA Fair Trade chocolate frogs to indicate that it’s feasible to produce Harry Potter chocolate that does not use child slavery. Using
Camino brand chocolate, manufacturing by
Lucky Chocolates and art work by Alec Longstreth, sets of three chocolate frogs are being sold in the HPA's store for $10 each.
“Not In Harry's Name” was originally known as the "Starvation Wages Horcrux," the first part of the 12-month Deathly Hallows Campaign. During the course of the Deathly Hallows Campaign, the HPA collected more than 16,000 signatures on a petition to Warner Bros., asking them to use Fair Trade cocoa in their products. The petition was also signed by Harry Potter actors Evanna Lynch, Mark Williams, Natalia Tena, and Jason Issacs. The entirety of the HPA’s communication with Warner Bros. can be viewed
at this link.
The HPA hopes that WB will choose to give a satisfactory answer by the deadline. However, if they do not, Slack explains what will happen next: “Then WB has decided to not stand for children’s rights and we will do everything within our legal power to change that. Imagine crowds of Harry Potter fans standing before regulatory bodies. Imagine occupying Warner Brothers right outside their building. At that point, the story changes. But we are very hopeful that we don’t get to that point.”
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