Erin Brockovich's life in the firing line

[Tina Greco - Melbourne]

Erin Brockovich's life in the firing line
5:00AM Sunday February 17, 2008
By Jehan Casinader


When Erin Brockovich fronted an advertising campaign for electronics retailer Noel Leeming last year, some shoppers did a double take.

Here was a woman, made world famous by the movie that carried her name, who was seen as a thorn in the side of big business, becoming a pin-up girl for Noel Leeming. Why did she agree to it, they wondered? And who dreamed up those irritating ads? And how could Brockovich possibly endorse a retail chain from which she has never bought anything?

Now Brockovich realises it's time for damage control. She wants to apologise, to make a statement to those who doubt her.

"I'm sorry we didn't meet on the terms you envisioned with me as the sooth-slayer of big business," she says as though reading from a prepared PR handout. "My intention was not to step into your world and make you distrust or disbelieve what I was saying. I saw an opportunity.

"Noel Leeming has a desire to do the right thing, and I wanted to follow through with them [by fronting the firm's campaign]."


Brockovich says she didn't receive much negative feedback on the campaign but in the same breath asks "but are you sure I won't get egged if I come down there?" She did, however, receive emails from Noel Leeming customers who were unhappy with the retailer's products or service. She has forwarded those emails to the company.

"Now I'm in this campaign and I'm finding that people are unhappy," she says, "so it is my job to say [to Noel Leeming],'You came to me with representation and the idea that you had integrity. We need to make it that way'. We're in a situation now where they have to do some rescuing.

"They've made some mistakes, and [need to be] preventative in the future. Noel Leeming doesn't want to upset customers any more than the customer wants to be upset."

Brockovich says she is "ferreting out the truth" about Noel Leeming, but the firm's chief executive, Andrew Dutkiewicz, isn't sure what she means by that. The company has received a "very, very small number" of complaints about the campaign, he says. Brockovich was given free rein during the shooting of the unscripted ads.

"We made it clear from the beginning that Erin could say what she liked, and we are glad she is able to flag issues for us."

The result was footage of Brockovich wandering around a residential home, earnestly talking about "integrity", "awareness", and "doing the right thing". She discussed life as a single "mom" (she has since remarried), how she hates hovering sales assistants ("Give me some space!"), and how she likes to shop ("Does a snake have fangs?").

While Noel Leeming is pleased with the campaign, which took a break over the summer holidays, feedback on news websites and online blogs tells a different story.

Brockovich acknowledges the criticism but says she is in the campaign for the long haul and that she wants to put things right. She denies accusations that she agreed to do the ad campaign only because it would be played in a small country at the other end of the world, far from her American audience.

Brockovich won't say what she was paid by Noel Leeming but says she did the campaign to dispel the notion that the business sector is the "baddie" and is only out to fleece consumers to make a buck.

"Industry isn't always the evil one. In this case, the retailer itself expressed an interest in wanting to do right by people, which I thought was intriguing. The consumer has to give them that opportunity. Everything I've been involved in has been in rescue mode. We really need to be more preventative, and I am here as an ambassador to get both sides to talk."

And, sounding somewhat like a walking-talking slogan she adds: "When big business stands by you, the consumer, I will stand by them."

Late last year Brockovich found herself in the invidious position of having to publicly rap the knuckles of Noel Leeming's sister company Bond and Bond when, last November, it ran a "sexist" newspaper advertisement saying "Government says fridges are better younger, just like women". After public reaction and a statement from Brockovich the ad was withdrawn.

Then she got caught up in the hype over formaldehyde, writing a blog post entitled "Wake Up, America," calling for "corrective action". After clothing fabrics were tested and the formaldehyde scare proved to be largely groundless, the hype collapsed. But Brockovich insists she hasn't been left red-faced.

"Oh, my gosh. Of course I wanted to speak about that issue. Even though it became over-exaggerated, people are now aware of the dangers of it. I'm all about awareness. If you don't put yourself out there, you're not going to know. If you don't know, you can't protect yourself. If you can't protect yourself, you can't effect change. It's just a vicious cycle."

Nor is she concerned that on the one hand she is outspoken on the vices of the fossil fuel industry and on the other she is teamed up with Noel Leeming which is owned by Australian private equity firm Gresham - half of which is owned by Wesfarmers, one of the largest fossil fuel extractors in Australia. Brockovich is fighting a major case in West Australia against a mining giant contaminating a community with chromium but she says Noel Leeming's connection with Wesfarmers doesn't concern her "unless they're doing something really bad".

That they're doing anything at all is what Noel Leeming will need to prove this time round. Last year's ads talked vaguely about community involvement and connected the company with Habitat for Humanity and Women's Refuge.

The Herald on Sunday has learned those community partnerships are only now being formed. But in an effort to put its money where its mouth is, Noel Leeming and its retail workers will next month start to build nine homes throughout New Zealand for families in need.

Brockovich was a single mother working as a legal clerk when she stumbled upon a contamination case in an American town called Hinkley in 1993. It led to the biggest direct-action lawsuit in American history. Seven years later the movie Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts, catapulted her to fame.

While the movie portrayed Brockovich as a sassy, almost bullet-proof woman, Brockovich admits that criticism of her can become too personal at times.

"There is an issue of toughness," she says. "I'm a human being, and I do get rejected at times. People can say a cornucopia of things about me, and when I'm chastised, it hurts. But I'm willing to hear the voice of a frustrated person. You've just got to walk the plank and let someone take a shot at you, otherwise you'll never manage to achieve anything."

These days Brockovich, 47, spends much of her time in California with her third husband Eric Ellis and three adult children.

Since Hinkley, Brockovich forged a career as a toxic specialist. She is also working on a high school litigation case in Beverly Hills, a South Carolina case against a developer who is allegedly polluting homes, and a Greek case in which industries are dumping waste into a river, poisoning a community. She is on the lecture circuit and says she intends to extend her influence internationally by taking cases and projects that relate to other countries.

Brockovich says even now her name "represents the idea of standing up for something".

"I was like the little boy who stuck his finger in the dyke. Now there are a thousand holes and I can't plug them all myself, but with the help of mankind, I will. We're not going to have global solutions if we don't communicate. My toxic cases are matters of life and death. [In comparison,] Noel Leeming isn't out there killing people, and I don't want to find that out."