Uh oh! You know that PSA I posted a few days ago, featuring the American Idol 10 Top 11 asking us to just say no to plastic pollution?
Well, it turns out the show is being pressured by a sponsor to have the PSA and any American Idol association with it removed. (Via Forbes)
“One of the show’s sponsors was very angry at seeing the piece and demanded that the show have it removed,” says Plastic Pollution Coalition executive director Daniella Russo. “When I asked if the sponsor in question was Coca Cola, they said, ‘You didn’t hear it from us.’ But even before all of this we were told that the PSA could only launch after the American Idol European tour because Coca Cola was a sponsor and might get upset.”
PPC was sent a legal request from 19E, demanding that the piece be removed immediately and that any mention of American Idol be removed from the organization’s materials.
Russo refused to take the PSA–which had been in the works with American Idol staff for eight months–down. And in fact, it is still available on You Tube to watch.
You can read the letter sent to Russo from 19’s legal department HERE.
19 insists there is no current agreement between the show and PPC, but the non-profit claims that 19 has been on board for months. “This is not a matter of us not obtaining permissions,” Russo says. “It is a matter of withdrawing permissions, AFTER a major sponsor was upset.”
PPC forwarded emails to Forbes that appear to back their claims. “…staff from 19 Entertainment officially approved the video and even supplied imagery to assist in the production of it. The emails also show 19 Entertainment and Plastic Pollution Coalition staff discussing the PSA, as well as various pre-prepared tweets to promote it, with both sides brainstorming ideas and both 19 Entertainment and the Idols themselves giving final approval on the upload of the video. Representatives from 19 Entertainment failed to respond to repeated requests for comment on this matter.”
As Forbes noted, the PSA hadn’t exactly gone viral. It was probably better just to let it go.
