Thursday, July 30, 2009

Greenwashing!


What would you think of a child abuser who sponsored UNICEF - but then continued to abuse children?
Would one good deed make up for the other?

That's what comes to mind when observing Discovery's efforts at portraying themselves as Shark conservationists whilst celebrating an orgy of anti-Shark scaremongering.
Their Frenzied Waters campaign and website are horror pure and simple and their Shark Week and YouTube Channel pages are an obscene collage of teeth and gore, as are their promotion and actual programming. Yes I know, the horse was pretty much dead when I started beating it and has since been reduced to pulp - but it still pisses me off!

So, does stuff like this make up for their Shark porn?



Will anybody listen to, of all people, Deadly Waters' own Les Stroud after seeing him brave the various high fatality hot spots? Will they support protecting an animal that he has just demonized as a dangerous, treacherous killer?

Like in the case of the child abuser, it's just not a zero sum game: you can't just "compensate" for doing evil by doing something good.
As amply documented by Mr. Gasek and recently, Mr. Ford, Discovery just don't give a rat's ass about Shark conservation. Their much hailed joining of forces with John Kerry, their alliance with the Ocean Conservancy and their recruiting of National Aquarium's Andy Dehart as their "resident Shark expert" may look great - but in this specific context and against the backdrop of their unacceptable misrepresentation of Sharks, it is nothing but marketing bullshit aimed at greenwashing their tarnished brand.

Thankfully, Fiji seems to agree.
Following Discovery's reckless attempt at damaging Fiji's tourism industry, Tourism Fiji has just announced a lucrative deal with National Geographic, Discovery's direct competitor.
John: eat that!

Hat tip: The Dorsal Fin for their relentless beating of the same dead horse!

5 comments:

Wilson said...

Hehe interesting intro/example XD

Interestingly enough, i watch Discovery Channel at work (yes, we do have a tv at work ^_^) and its only after reading this post then did i find out about Discovery's so called conservation shark stand. Never would have realised it while watching Discovery hehe

I do like Mythbusters though ^_^

DaShark said...

Wilson my man - long time!

Watching Discovery at work???
Where is that if I may ask? I might just feel like popping in for a bit of talanoa!

I'm more into Deadliest Catch but granted, Mythbusters is pretty cool, too! But now that I've signed the petition, no more of either!

Anonymous said...

Yup that's pretty much green washing, or one might even say lies.

Wilson said...

Bah - i work all the way in the bush a.k.a. Wailoku. Interestingly enough our office does have a nice sea view :)

Ange said...

UGH!! AGREE....I just posted an entry about this "wildlife documentary" and used one of the pictures from your blog, hope you don't mind. Awesome blog though!!