Way back when, it was George Lucas who invented the all-zones-flooded movie merchandising blitz. From Darth Vader Coke cups in 1977 to pudgy Bail Organa action figures in 2005, film marketers have mastered the art of leveraging children's movies to sell nasty, industrially-produced fast food (and vice versa).

 

Kids can't resist Ewoks or french fries. Together? Unstoppable.

Considering the epidemic of obesity--particularly among the little porkers formerly known as children in the U.S.--this practice seems all the more sordid these days. Not to mention environmentally irresponsible. Fast food is the opposite of sustainable and responsible.

So, it comes as welcome news, that Disney/Pixar have declined to renew a 10-year, $1 billion agreement with McDonalds to promote Pixar's CGI films.

Hmmm. Steve Jobs owns Pixar. Pixar buys Disney. Steve Jobs is pescetarian. A few weeks later, Pixar/Disney say good bye to McDonald's. Coincidence? Not likely.

This is Steve Jobs, the mercurial genius behind iPods and the Macintosh, striking an unambiguous blow for the EcoGeeky agenda. Cartoons and fast food must be de-linked.

I've watched my nephew stare, glaze-eyed, at Toy Story roughly one million times. Woody and Buzz are like Baby Crack. Powerfully addictive stuff. Except, unlike crack, Pixar cartoons seem harmless. If anything, watching said nephew activate his Buzz Lightyear wrist laser while hollering, "to infiminitee anbedond!" suggests the emergence of a fun-loving and imaginitive mind. Pixar films entertain countless persons for countless hours and incur no greater material inputs than sustenance for a handful of intensely creative minds, a little electricity, and a few DVDs. Creativity, information, entertainment--these are the very essence of the EcoGeeky way forward. Harmless human gratification with a small ecological footprint.

McDonalds is the oppposite. A vast network of industrial food production, energy-intensive logistics, dubious animal husbandry, metastasizing cultural sameness--all of which is directed toward producing  bland dog shit some call food that makes children fat, anxious, and probably stupid. Although I can't prove the latter two.

Thanks, Steve Jobs. You might be the world's most powerful EcoGeek.

Now please buy DreamWorks SKG before I have to watch Shrek and Grimace hawking Happy Meals.

 

Via ZDNEt