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While watching So You Think You Can Dance? the other night I saw a commercial that I thoroughly enjoyed. I'll let the blog "Live Manly" describe the action:
A young boy is tossing a baseball to himself and trying to hit it. Before each pitch he yells, “I am the greatest hitter in the world!” and promptly misses it. Before the 3rd pitch, he spits in his hands, gets serious and takes another swing… missing entirely and technically striking out. He looks sullen at first, but then looks up triumphant and declares, “I am the greatest pitcher in the world!”
Sounds cute, right? But what's it for? Optimism. And who is selling optimism I hear you asking. That would be the Foundation for a Better Life.
When I saw that sponsor I immediately thought "religious cult." Cynical much, Maria? But their "About" section says this:
We are a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing the values that make a difference in our communities. We create public service campaigns that model the benefits of a life lived by positive values. In turn, we hope to inspire people to make values a part of their own lives, and then to communicate the benefits to others.
And their FAQ dispels a bunch of other notions by explaining that they are a non-profit organization, funded anonymously by a family and unaffiliated with any religion.
So I decided to do a bit of online sleuthing to see if bloggers were inspired or suspicious of the campaign and I found a bit of both. Alison at She Blogs She Blogs saw billboards and cried.
Anyway. I’m sure you’re not as much of an emotional mess as I am. And you keep your cool when you see billboards. But you can go to the Foundation for a Better Life website and read more about the stories of any of the people on the billboards.
Deborah Knight at Shear Bagatelle saw billboards, checked out the foundation and messages and decided:
I'm glad there are organizations like Foundation For A Better Life that remind us that there is still a lot of good in the world. All we have to do is to look for it.
However, it turns out that FBL has been around for nearly a decade and bloggers have unearthed some information about the family behind the foundation.
Notably Lindsay Beyerstein and Majikthise hit up her readers for help and learned that the campaign is funded by:
Philip Anschutz, who the BBC described as having "a reputation as one of the hungriest of US corporate vultures", is currently using his wealth and power to support a slick ad campaign appearing on 10,000 billboards, in hundreds of movie theaters, and on nearly a thousand TV stations across the country. [Read the entire post here for links to further information]
Fenriss is cynical like me. But then also does a bit of digging and is disturbed:
Well, see, if you check out their FAQ, you’ll find that the Foundation is funded by “a family that wishes to remain anonymous.” But in fact, all you have to do is check Wiki to find that it is actually funded by one Philip Frederick Anschutz, an evangelical Christian, a vocal supporter of anti gay rights legislation, and a wildly successful oil man with a penchant for drilling in protected forests and Native American sites.
This fine citizen, who would like us all to return to a set of beneficial personal values, was named America’s greediest executive by Fortune magazine. He’s also given tons of cash to Colorado for Family Values. Those are the guys whose stated goal is to halt "the militant gay agenda." You’ll remember them for inspiring the boycott on Celestial Seasonings tea in the early 90s.
Alrighty then. So I've discovered that the the funding for a series of positive, uplifting messages - one of which put a smile on my face - comes from a person who apparently does not share my values. What do I do? It seems that they are running ads weekly on SYTYCD and I'm going to see more of them. Do I ignore them? Do I try not to laugh, cry or be inspired? Do I overlook that the funding comes from a place and spirit which I don't? Do I pass the message along anyway? Do
