|
|
PATH: BS | Business | Marketing
|
USDA Parades Dog-And-Pony Show Over Mad Cow Disease
Posted by Pile
(7633 views)      [E-Mail link]
|
 |
The online free encyclopedia Wikipedia defines "dog-and-pony show" as a public "display that is somewhat pathetically contrived." That's what the new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, is convening this Thursday, June 9, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Secretary Johanns will lead a roundtable discussion dominated by the most powerful agricultural lobby organizations in the United States to spread the good news that mad cow disease is no longer a problem in North America. The invited participants include the American Farm Bureau, the American Meat Institute, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the National Meat Association, the National Milk Producers and the National Renderers Association. Not a single consumer, human health or public interest group was invited to speak, nor were any scientists who research mad cow and related diseases, such as Nobel laureate Dr. Stanley Prusiner. The USDA hopes to convince the assembled news media that it's time to open the U.S. border to Canadian cattle and time for Japan and Korea to accept U.S. beef and cattle.
There's just one problem with this rosy picture of mad cow disease in North America: it has little or no basis in fact. |
READ MORE | 2 comments since 2005-06-15 14:39:45 | Comment on this Article |
|
Bumper Sticker Store
A McDonald's television ad that showed a Chinese man begging for fast food has been taken off the air in China following complaints. In a statement faxed to local media on Wednesday, McDonald's defended the ad as an attempt at humor. Reports said viewers complained that the ad's depiction of a middle-aged man on his knees begging for a discount was disturbing because Chinese consider such an act a humiliating indignity. 
McDonald's latest ad campaign, launching this week shows a new svelt, fitness-guru version of their Ronald McDonald mascot promoting exercise and fruit juggling. Conspicuously absent from the new commercials are images of their food products.
Not more than a few weeks after Newsweek's disasterous story and related retraction over Americans flushing the Koran down the toilet and sparking religious riots in which many died, the "news magazine" runs an interesting picture in their Japanese edition. 
If you've been surfing around the net, you've probably seen those annoying "click here to win a free iPod" banner ads. It's basically a Ponzi-esque marketing scheme that people fall for. An enterprising site called iMockery.com has put together a very funny collection of new ads for these schemes.