American Idol Is Okay With Plastic Pollution

I love a good PSA. Famous people using their platforms as forces of good in this world makes celebrity culture worthwhile. And it's really great to see single use disposables as the topic of a PSA. This video was donated to the Plastic Pollution Coalition by the top finalists from American Idol's last season, and its brilliant. Few things are more pop culture-relevant than Idol, and few things get less attention from pop culture than single use disposables.

This video came by way via Beth Terry of My Plastic Free Life, only it didn't come without controversy. American Idol is pretty unhappy with the video on account of the fact that it upsets a sponsor they chose not to name but we can all guess: Coca-Cola. The soda company also runs Dasani, one of the world's biggest bottled water brands around and, incidentally, also one of the largest purveyors of single use plastics.

Forbes ran an article about the debacle, and offered a cautionary tale about working without a contract. Apparently 19 Entertainment, the production company behind the masterpiece that is Idol, gave email permission and production materials for the PSA to go live. But after the PSA was made and one of their sponsors decided they wanted to remain in the business of selling bottles that will hang around for around 450 years, all of a sudden the tables were turned. For anyone who is thinking of making a PSA: emails don't necessarily count as contracts.

However, if you ask me, drawing attention to a PSA that wasn't actually getting that much attention is the best way to get attention on the very thing you're trying to keep attention away from. In this case, few people were watching the American Idol PSA, so 19 Entertainment could have let sleeping dogs lie. But now they're drawing attention to it and people are starting to notice. Like us. And you. So watch it, tweet it, tell your friends.

Here's the link to watch it on youtube and copy and paste to tell all your friends: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8gatjXJZW4.