Animal Planet/Clorox Frog Site: Croakwashing?
We recently took a look at Save The Frog.com, a new Web site by the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet and Clorox, probably best known for making bleach, but
also manufacturer of Liquid-Plumr, Pine-Sol, Glad bags, Formula 409, Armor All, and even KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce.
The site, which has tie-ins to Animal Planet TV programming, is set up to educate people about the planetwide disappearance of frogs, a major environmental concern with causes that remain difficult to fully understand. They include habitat destruction, pollution, a virulent fungus, global warming and other factors.
What the Web site doesn't detail is the Clorox company's environmental record over the last couple of decades. It has been less than stellar, according to a number of sources, including EPA data and SEC filings. In 2004, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group named Clorox one of what it calls the "Dangerous Dozen" companies in the United States, based on an analysis of manufacturing plants' emergency response programs and the nature of chemicals stored and produced in them. USPIRG has not updated the report since 2004.
In addition, the domain for savethefrog.com is not registered to Discovery Communications, Animal Planet's parent company. It's registered to Fleishman Hillard, one of the world's largest PR firms, whose clients include Circuit City, Marriott Hotels, and Egypt -- and, it would appear, Clorox.
The Animal Planet-Clorox mini-site devotes a full page to "How Clorox Helps," which indicates that frog rescue workers use Clorox bleach to kill off the aforementioned fungus, devastating to frogs and amphibians, in a project to preserve some of the most endangered frogs. The page also promotes the use of bleach as a cleaning agent in hospitals and other environments where sterile conditions are required.
Clorox also paid the lobbying firm Hogan & Hartson $90,000 in 2008 to promote the health and safety benefits of anti-microbial products. They've also created a site called Facts About Bleach.com, the domain for which is registered to Ketchum, Inc., one of the world's largest PR firms. Its association with Clorox goes back to 1991, when a leaked memo from Ketchum detailed a number of tactics Clorox could employ should an environmental group or journalist call the safety of bleach use into question. Among the recommended tactics was the launch of a "Stop Environmental Terrorism" public relations campaign.
The Animal Planet/Clorox site also notes frogs are "particularly sensitive to pollution," making them important sentinels to potential human threats.
We know Clorox is trying to position itself as a "health and wellness" brand, and that their new green image campaign prompted the Sierra Club's Florida chapter to complain about a deal the parent organization did with Clorox.
Corporations do this kind of thing. But what's a little troubling is the way Animal Planet, part of an organization that's a well-known and respected producer and broadcaster of documentary films on, among other subjects, the environment, has treated the Clorox frog site. Animal Planet's site can't seem to make up its mind whether SaveTheFrogs.com is an advertisement or editorial content. To be fair, it has produced its own frog content and displays banner and box ads for the frog site labeled "advertisement." However, in its own table of contents, it includes the frog site without calling it an ad, and then further down, the link, "How Clorox Helps Frogs." Further down its own list of contents are two headlines with text:
HOW CLOROX HELPS
Curious about how Clorox Regular Bleach helps frogs? Find out!
VISIT SAVETHEFROG.COM
Visit The Clorox Company's "Year of the Frog" website for more!
And with all those big pictures of Jeff Corwin all over the place, who but the most careful reader can tell what's advertising and what isn't?
Thanks to our friends at SourceWatch for background on this topic.