I work on political documentaries for a living, and I have a website that sells DVDs. Here are four great DVDs that focus on out-of-control corporate shenanigans, in case you haven't already seen them:

MCLIBEL - about the longest running trial in Brit history: McD's vs two activists who told the truth about how damaging the company is to the environment, public health, and labor.

SWEET MISERY - Mostly about the health hazards of aspartame (NutriSweet, Equal), but has good info on the corrupt FDA approval process. And guess who was CEO of Searle Pharmaceuticals during approval?? (our good friend Rummy).

THE FUTURE OF FOOD - about GMO's and the bastards at Monsanto.

WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE (I'm sure you know all about this)

They're all available at my website, if you're interested: WWW.DOCWORKERS.COM . Please visit!

-Adam
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Adam
offline Adam
Los Angeles
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  • PINWORM
    PINWORM
    offline 19

    Re: You've all probably seen these, but in case you haven't...

    Sat, March 25, 2006 - 12:55 AM
    The McLibel case was most interesting, because it wasn't technically libel. Libel only occours when what is publicly stated is false...the Greenpeace guys who handed out the pamphlets with scientific facts about the food were not comitting libel and Mcdonalds knew it. Their strategy failed, but it speaks volumes about the power of money. McDonalds merely tried to outspend the activists in court to the point where the activists couldn't afford to defend themselves.

    More frightening and relieiving was the Oprah/Beef Industry case...I really HATE Oprah, but celebrated her victory before realizing that there ARE laws in place to protect industry from truthful accusations leveled against it. They want legal protection of public perceptions in their favor, and protection from public perceptions damaging to their market share.

    Although not a movie, an interesting trial resulting in a corporate exposure was the case of The Body Shop, sued in class action by people who were led to belive that their products were not tested on animals...after all, they had LABELS on them which stated "Not Tested On Animals" and actually tried to argue the semantics of this like Bill Clinton argued about the semantics of "have sexual relations with". The Body Shop didn't do any animal testing..as a matter of fact, they didn't do any testing at all. They bought their ingredients from chemical companies that did the testing on the animals, and argued that it was the suppliers purchased from that did the testing, not actually The Body Shop. They lost because it was demonstrated that they knew damn well their suppliers were testing the stuff on dogs, monkeys and rabbits..they read the final reports on the tests before deciding to buy.

    now The Body Shop has labels that say "Against Animal Testing"...as if that means anything. Corporate statements about their beliefs are meaningless to everyone but the soccer moms.
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    • Coun...
      CounterCorp
      offline 7

      Re: You've all probably seen these, but in case you haven't...

      Sat, March 25, 2006 - 3:45 PM
      FYI re: The Body Shoppe -- Anita Roddick just sold TBS to one of the big nasty cosmetics companies (L'Oreal, Estee Lauder, Revlon, I can't remember which), while nonetheless claiming that this is not a sell-out, and that somehow TBS will maintain its previous "high" standards of ethical business practices. Based on what you wrote above, that shouldn't be too hard for the new owners.

      I think people just want to be *told* that things are good -- just like the Bushmen wanted their sources to tell them that Saddam had WMDs -- so that they can do what they want to do anyway, and were planning to do all along no matter what. People like Roddick figured this out, and launched a new wave of "greenwash" marketing in which minimally concerned people are given the false assurance they need to do what they clearly want to do anyway, which is buy a bunch of crap they don't need.

      Even if everything in TBS *were* ethically and sustainably produced, 90 percent of it is unnecessary, and the company itself has become an enormous corporate chain with franchises all over the world -- which is precisely why mega-corp wanted to buy them. Cultural clear-cutting of the type practiced by Roddick and her ilk is neither ethical nor sustainable, no matter how they do it ...
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      • PINWORM
        PINWORM
        offline 19

        Re: You've all probably seen these, but in case you haven't...

        Sat, March 25, 2006 - 11:18 PM
        I would also add that there is also a "smartwash" going on, in which unhealthy products are touted as being wise food choices...the meaningless word "natural" is on millions of industrialized food packaging, although it usually refers to chemical compounds that use a few natrual extracts in artificial flavoring agents. Then there is the Baked Lays campaign...as if their being baked makes their vending machine chips a healthy food. Things with less salt but just as much GM, chemical agents, refined sugar and corn syrups are also touted as healthy....all while their lawyers lobby congress to reduce the requirement for Organic labeling to be dropped to 25% from 95% of organic ingredients per product.
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