Monday, January 29, 2007

YOUR YouTube FIX: The Human Element

This beautifully executed commercial fell under heavy scrutiny a little more than six months ago. Dow Chemical released its advertising campaign "The human element." The campaign seeks to improve the tarnished corporate image by letting the public know it works to change lives.

Indeed Dow's manufacturing of toxic chemicals and by products do change lives but not in the way Dow claims. Throughout decades Dow's lack of public accountability has threatened the personal health and safety of the public, taken lives, and devastated the environment.

It's it ironic? Don't you think?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A bit reductionist view of Dow Chemicals, Sweets. They don't sit around all day thinking up toxic chemicals, they make ingredients in so many items that there isn't a household in America that doesn't have something made by Dow in it. Read the labels of your cosmetics, your hair shampoos and conditioners, see any propylene glycol? You find it in paints, adhesives, coatings, textiles, wire and cable polyethylene compounds, laminated safety glass, packaging, automotive plastic fuel tanks and acrylic fibers, flame retardants and a lot more.

Ever spray your roses for mildew and blight? That's Ethylenediamine or EDA. Sounds really bad, right? And roses are for un-green people, I guess, like moms and grandmoms. So forget that one, they're going to die in a few years anyway.

Ever heard of ion exchange resins and reverse osmosis membranes? crosslinked polyacrylic acid compounds? Probably not, huh? They are used to purify and treat wastewater removing truly dangerous chemicals from it. Yeah, Dow makes those.

Your computer has Dow chemical compounds in it, they make the coatings and the insulation for wires and a lot of other electronic devices like your iPhone.

I'm not a spokesman for Dow, I don't even own any of the stock, I'm just a man who can't stand ignorant positions taken against corporations which make things that we simply cannot do without today. Maybe that's bad, but it is what it is. As big companies go, Dow is no worse than many and much better than most. It's way too easy to point the finger and say something that sounds good, bashing big business has been a hobby for all of us at one time or another, but once in awhile it's good to acknowledge how much we depend on them. If anyone is going to be able to figure out how to clean up the mess we've made, it's going to be companies like Dow. So cut them a little slack, and do your homework.