Scarlett Johansson's SodaStream dispute a 'disaster' for Oxfam
Scarlett Johansson's resignation as an Oxfam ambassador was a "disaster" which cost the charity "thousands" of donors, according to its boss.
The Avengers actress, 32, served as an ambassador for the charity from 2007 until she quit in 2014 due to a disagreement over her appearance in an advert for beverage company SodaStream.
She backed SodaStream bosses' decision to open a factory in an
Israeli settlement in the contested West Bank area, going against
Oxfam's policy of boycotting goods and trade from Israeli
settlements, and eventually resigned from her charity role.
According to The Guardian, Mark Goldring, the chief executive of
the international non-profit, told a London gathering of charity
workers the stand-off with Scarlett was a "PR disaster" which had
cost Oxfam's American arm "literally thousands" of donors.
During the initial dispute, pressure from activists caused Oxfam
bosses to release a statement saying they found her work with
SodaStream "incompatible" with her ambassador role.
Unlike Sex and the City star Kristin Davis, another Oxfam
ambassador who ended her association with an Israeli cosmetics firm
over its links to West Bank settlements in 2009, Scarlett stood by
the SodaStream deal and left Oxfam.
"She and Oxfam have a fundamental difference of opinion in regards
to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (on Israeli
goods)," a spokesperson for Scarlett said of her resignation.
Oxfam supremo Mark has now admitted that the charity got things
wrong when dealing with Scarlett's opposition to his charity's
stance, adding, "The judgment was when to be proactive, when to be
forceful, and when to be balanced and reflective. We got that
wrong."