Live Earth: Brought to You By These Corporate Sponsors

By Manila Ryce
Published Wednesday, August 1st, 2007, 5:56 am
Filed under: US Politics, Videos, World Issues, Entertainment, Environment, Videos: Political

God bless The Daily Show for finally saying something about this.

Ladies and gentlemen, as if you needed it, I present you with yet another reason why Al Gore would be a horrible choice for president in ‘08. Live Earth was an environmental disaster in itself, nevermind the irresponsible practices its corporate sponsors represented to anyone with true “global awareness”. By consuming mass amounts of fuel and electricity, entertainers were able to tell everyone about how their actions were contributing to the poor state of our planet. Yet rather than preach the traditional environmental values of conservation, the message behind Live Earth was to simply consume more products - products preferably supplied by the environmentally conscious sponsors of the festival.

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While babyboomer spokespeople declared Live Earth to be the Woodstock of MY generation for it’s message of change and cooperation, their are obvious differences. First off, the Woodstock of the 60’s (not the disastrous one of the 90’s) was a free event which didn’t turn a profit. Live Earth charged attendees up to $350 a ticket. How many hippies do you know that can afford such a price? Second, the headliners of Live Aid were considered part of youth culture in the 80’s. However, modern pop groups like The Pussycat Dolls and Black Eyed Peas were also thrown in because that’s who you throw in when you don’t want anyone to know how disconnected you really are. In the eyes of my generation, the corporate marketing campaign seemed to be exclusively targeting 40-year-old men and 12-year-old girls with that selection of music. Third, and perhaps most important, Woodstock was organized by the counterculture, not the corporate establishment. Sorry Live Earth, but it’s not even the age of your founders or entertainers that makes you “the man”. It’s the fact that you’re part of the problem you’re telling us to fight.