fixes and fast talk
Well, goddamn.
You know those ads before the movies about random acts of kindness and helping out strangers--or the billboards about compassion and overcoming adversity and integrity? We have 'em all over, here. They're done by the Foundation for a Better Life, in cooperation with the Ad Council.
Honestly, I'm enough of a sap to like most of them. I think people need more reminders in their daily lives of their connections to each other and their moral potential. Call me an old-fashioned preacher that way, I guess.
Well, the Foundation for a Better Life has a very shiny website. They showcase all their billboards and such, and they talk about their core values, and they leave a contact email if you want to donate. What they don't do is tell you where all the money comes from, who they are, who founded them, or what their greater goals are. I dug for months, trying to figure out who the hell was funding all these expensive ads apparently in the name of nothing but altruistic fellowship. They made themselves hard to find.
Someone else did the necessary digging where I couldn't, though, and any ideas I had of maybe working for them at some point are gone now.
This may not be news to you-all, but the Foundation is funded by billionaire Philip Anschutz, and he's bad news. Really bad news. As in, his other campaigns to change society are, well--frankly, they read like a rapsheet of the current American poisons, from corporate predation to institutionalized homophobia to fundamentalist anti-intellectualism to environmental destruction to neoconservative politics. His contributions are huge.
Read that article I linked if you're in any way on the fence about it.
No wonder they keep it so well concealed. Whatever president Gary Dixon's intentions, the Better Life they want isn't for me.
You know those ads before the movies about random acts of kindness and helping out strangers--or the billboards about compassion and overcoming adversity and integrity? We have 'em all over, here. They're done by the Foundation for a Better Life, in cooperation with the Ad Council.
Honestly, I'm enough of a sap to like most of them. I think people need more reminders in their daily lives of their connections to each other and their moral potential. Call me an old-fashioned preacher that way, I guess.
Well, the Foundation for a Better Life has a very shiny website. They showcase all their billboards and such, and they talk about their core values, and they leave a contact email if you want to donate. What they don't do is tell you where all the money comes from, who they are, who founded them, or what their greater goals are. I dug for months, trying to figure out who the hell was funding all these expensive ads apparently in the name of nothing but altruistic fellowship. They made themselves hard to find.
Someone else did the necessary digging where I couldn't, though, and any ideas I had of maybe working for them at some point are gone now.
This may not be news to you-all, but the Foundation is funded by billionaire Philip Anschutz, and he's bad news. Really bad news. As in, his other campaigns to change society are, well--frankly, they read like a rapsheet of the current American poisons, from corporate predation to institutionalized homophobia to fundamentalist anti-intellectualism to environmental destruction to neoconservative politics. His contributions are huge.
Read that article I linked if you're in any way on the fence about it.
No wonder they keep it so well concealed. Whatever president Gary Dixon's intentions, the Better Life they want isn't for me.
Labels: journalism, metablogging, rogue econ
posted by little light | 5:34 AM
1 Comments:
oh, swell.
thanks for doing the research. i hadn't been aware of that one, but i'll be on the lookout.
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