Yahoo’s Fortunes, Chevron’s Strange Ads and the Battle over Bottled Water
Shares of web pioneer Yahoo Inc. rise upon departure of CEO Jerry Yang.
Chevron launches a series of ads aimed at reducing energy consumption.
A PR battles emerges between manufacturers of water filters and producers of bottled water.
More headlines: listen to the LibertyWeek podcast.
1. TECHNOLOGY
Shares of web pioneer Yahoo Inc. rise upon departure of CEO Jerry Yang.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology Policy Analyst Cord Blomquist on how the Justice Department has been holding the company back:
“Yahoo knows it’s not going to be a leader in search anytime soon, but it’s a leader in many content areas. Its Yahoo Mail service alone has over a quarter of a billion users, dwarfing Google Gmail. Transitioning to a content-focused company is probably the best move for Yahoo, a move that will be much harder without the ability to monetize its more esoteric content as well as search queries. Once again, in trying to maintain some conception of what competition has been, antitrust regulators have prevented the competition of the future from forming as quickly as might have.”
2. ENERGY
Chevron launches a series of ads aimed at reducing energy consumption.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman on the Orwellian overtones of the campaign:
“…the global-warming alarmist campaign that triggered Chevron’s ads is on the verge of becoming a war of its own, to be waged 24/7. This war will almost certainly go into high gear under President Obama, with his promise of an 80% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. If carbon dioxide is the enemy, then we are all enemy agents, complicit from the first cry we let out at birth. And if Chevron’s ‘Energy Saved Is Energy Found’ slogan smacks of doublespeak, it may be because the global warming campaign itself is so similar to the perpetual war in George Orwell’s ‘1984.’”
3. ENVIRONMENT
A PR battles emerges between manufacturers of water filters and producers of bottled water.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Risk and Environmental Policy Angela Logomasini on the battle over bottled water:
“Legislators are denying consumers choice when it comes to bottled water, imposing taxes and regulations because of green hype. Contrary to the environmentalist claims, CEI demonstrates on www.enjoybottledwater.org that bottled water has a better safety record than tap water. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency both recommend bottled water for people with compromised immune systems because it is more reliable than tap water. Moreover, bottled water containers are extremely energy efficient to produce, lightweight for transport, and they represent a sanitary vehicle for storing emergency water supplies.”
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