Apparently when the Lorax isn't speaking for the trees, he's hocking SUVs, sugar-stuffed pancakes and disposable diapers. Today in news that is deeply discouraging, The Lorax has been revealed to be a hairy little hypocrite. While its Facebook page proudly promotes saving the rainforest, Mother Jones has drawn our attention to some dubious cross-promotion. There's a wide array of "launch partners" for the film that will be offering Lorax-themed promotions and products, which isn't surprising for a kids' movie. In fact it's generally expected. However, because of The Lorax's ardent message of eco-awareness and the dangers of rampant consumerism, it is shocking and shameful that its producers have signed on to such anti-green products.
For instance, there are these "Lorax Approved" disposable diapers, so your child can literally shit all over the idea of reducing waste:
And despite the film's mockery of unnatural, chemically manufactured food, here's an add for "Truffula Chip Pancakes," where Truffula apparently translates to "rainbow sprinkles, topped with more sprinkles."
But most egregious of the cross-promotions revealed so far is this ad for a ''Seuss-ifed' 2013 Mazda CX-5 crossover SUV," a car that the tasteless commercial below insists is "Certified Truffla Tree Friendly."
Now, when a company chooses not to promote any sensible facts or figures about their supposedly eco-friendly model, and instead boasts something lawyers can't refute, I'm immediately suspicious. But I'm not a car person, so I consulted Automobile magazine to understand just what these purposely-ambiguous claims may mean. It turns out that the "Skyactiv technology" the announcer repeatedly refers to basically means that this SUV "delivers a 15 percent improvement in both torque and fuel economy" compared to Mazda's last SUV models. However, it does this without going the way of the electric engine, but instead keeping the gas-dependent combustible engine going under the guise of being green.
So the CX-5 is an improvement over, say a Hummer, but nowhere near something that's a truly eco-friendly machine, like a Volt or a Prius. But hey, advertise the approval of an imaginary guardian of the environment in your commercial and who cares, right? At least Fox News will be pleased.
