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Katrina & Hollywood

zenith-nadir

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Z
Joined
Feb 3, 2004
Messages
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I consider this a "current event" and not a "Movies, TV, Music, Computer Gaming, and other Entertainment" topic. Perhaps I am wrong...I dunno...anyhow...

Did you know the 90-plus presenters at the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards EACH get "gift baskets" ?

Items include:
  • an iPod.
  • a luxury three-night Canadian getaway.
  • a Dooney & Bourke suitcase - (their hadbags are $300.00).
  • a Dove chocolate oasis - (a "chocolate consultant" will set up an overflowing assortment of chocolate for as many as 100 guests for each of the 90 presenters).
  • an Ike Behar shirt and tie with 18-karat gold buttons
  • a gift bag full of Kate Somerville spa and skin care.
  • a Panasonic digital camera
  • a Sprint PCS Vision Samsung multimedia phone
  • a 2005 Emmy limited-edition ink-on-canvas work by Susan Manders

The reason I bring this up is one would hope that this year - out of any year - the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences would donate the few million spent on these 90+ lavish "gift baskets" to the people affected by Katrina. To waste it on multi-millionares who A) can well afford to pay for these items and B) have the o-so brutal task of saying "and the winner is" is offensive...at least to me. I mean come on...a frikkin "chocolate consultant"???? Jesus H. tapdancing Christ that is obscene.

I'm sure the American Red Cross could use all that $$$$...or America's Second Harvest...or Food for the Hungry...or the Salvation Army...or the Save the Children Fund...
 
can you say

"advertising budget" ?

The mere fact that you have named the manufacturers of the gifts means their money is being well-spent.

Dooney & Bourke.
Apple.
Susan Manders.


What about the tens of millions of $$$ that Burger King and McDonalds' spends on promoting and manufacturing kids meals' toys? C'mon, these corporations sell FOOD, not toys. Yet, their budget for those little toys amounts to literally billions over the years.
http://www.collectorsconnection.com/burger.htm


Some or all of those charities you mentioned may very well receive donations of cash from Hollywood actors, directors, producers, photographers, key grips, costume designers, editors, etc... in amounts far in excess of the value of the gift baskets that 90 people receive.

Not to mention that a Hollywood movie should hit the screens soon enough with Katrina as the subject, and I would imagine that some of the proceeds from that blockbuster film would be donated to the various causes...
(working title -- "When the Levees Broke")
 
Those baskets cost virtually nothing. The items are donated in the hopes that the companies will get free publicity.
 
Of course those baskets cost money Tmy, someone has to pay for those goods. But I think you guys are missing the point. Instead of lavishing multi-millionare actors with gifts perhaps just this year the money could have been donated "in the name of the Emmy's" to Katrina relief funds...

Maybe we could send frikkin "chocolate consultants" to the orphaned kids of Katrina and not to Nicollette Sheridan and Geena Davis.....Call me crazy. ;)
 
zenith-nadir said:
Of course those baskets cost money Tmy, someone has to pay for those goods. But I think you guys are missing the point. Instead of lavishing multi-millionare actors with gifts perhaps just this year the money could have been donated "in the name of the Emmy's" to Katrina relief funds...

Maybe we could send frikkin "chocolate consultants" to the orphaned kids of Katrina and not to Nicollette Sheridan and Geena Davis.....Call me crazy. ;)
Click to expand...

Do you happen to know that those "multi-millionare actors" haven't already donated multi-millions? What if they have? Now can they have their goody bag?
 
zenith-nadir said:
Of course those baskets cost money Tmy, someone has to pay for those goods. But I think you guys are missing the point. Instead of lavishing multi-millionare actors with gifts perhaps just this year the money could have been donated "in the name of the Emmy's" to Katrina relief funds...

Maybe we could send frikkin "chocolate consultants" to the orphaned kids of Katrina and not to Nicollette Sheridan and Geena Davis.....Call me crazy. ;)
Click to expand...

I fail to see how that would be a sucessful marketing stratergy amoung the target demographic.
 
Emmys and Oscars are nothing more than marketing ploys to rebrand a product with a limited shelf life. This rebranding is used to resell you - the consumer - a product so that the studios can make a few more bucks off it by saying it's Emmy-winning or Oscar-winning. Off-the top of your head do any of you remember the "best television drama" of 2002? How about the Oscar winner for Best Actor in 1999? How about the "Best Miniseries" for 2003? Nope? didn't think so.

In a post 9-11, post tsunami and post Katrina world I have an moral issue with "chocolate consultants", ipods and luxury getaways for multi-millionare actors saying "and the winner is". Call me a war criminal if you wish... ;)
 
zenith-nadir said:

In a post 9-11, post tsunami and post Katrina world I have an moral issue with "chocolate consultants", ipods and luxury getaways for multi-millionare actors saying "and the winner is". Call me a war criminal if you wish... ;)
Click to expand...

Cuba is thata way.
 
zenith-nadir said:
So now I am "a commy"...
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Yep if you belive that your moral objections to the way people spend money are of any significance then communism (or at least a state run economy with no free market) is the logical end point of your position.
 
geni said:
Yep if you belive that your moral objections to the way people spend money are of any significance then communism (or at least a state run economy with no free market) is the logical end point of your position.
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Pass the crack pipe Geni... ;)

I don't object to a free market economy...I don't object to "how people spend money"....I find lavishing multi-millionares with expensive gifts for announcing the 'winners' in a self-promoting marketing charade tasteless while Rome is burning...
 
zenith-nadir said:
Pass the crack pipe Geni... ;)

I don't object to a free market economy...I don't object to "how people spend money"....I find lavishing multi-millionares with expensive gifts for announcing the 'winners' in a self-promoting marketing charade tasteless while Rome is burning...
Click to expand...

You said you had a moral objection. You posted here so you must think that matters to some degree.
 
zenith-nadir said:
I consider this a "current event" and not a "Movies, TV, Music, Computer Gaming, and other Entertainment" topic. Perhaps I am wrong...I dunno...anyhow...
Click to expand...
Are you planning on giving all of your disposable ( non essential income ) to Katrina victims ? For how long? Why not ?

If you waste one penny on any personal luxury, you are no better than an actor who accepts a goody bag at the Emmys.. It's just a matter of degree..



No one needs Katrina as an excuse to not waste money if they choose to...


Bill Gates could rescue the economies of any number of third world contries if he chose to.. Is it immoral for him not to ?


The list goes on and on...
 
Bill Gates is one of the greatest philanthropists of our time Diogenes. Additionally, I am not planning on giving all of my disposable ( non essential income ) to Katrina victims... but if I was a multi-millionaire actor wearing a designer outfit and $100,000 worth of bling on my way to parcicipate in a self-promoting rebranding marketing scheme in my chauffer-driven strech limo I certainly would give the "gift basket" to a Katrina survivor. Hell... I might even fly it there on my private Gulfstream... ;)
 
zenith-nadir said:
Bill Gates is one of the greatest philanthropists of our time Diogenes. Additionally, I am not planning on giving all of my disposable ( non essential income ) to Katrina victims... but if I was a multi-millionaire actor wearing a designer outfit and $100,000 worth of bling on my way to parcicipate in a self-promoting rebranding marketing scheme in my chauffer-driven strech limo I certainly would give the "gift basket" to a Katrina survivor. Hell... I might even fly it there on my private Gulfstream... ;)
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Didn't catch the part about ' matter of degree ' huh ?

Ever read the story of the widow's mite?;)
 
Diogenes said:
Didn't catch the part about ' matter of degree ' huh ?

Ever read the story of the widow's mite?;)
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Tell me Diogenes. Why are you defending Hollywood celebrating itself are while unclaimed bodies are floating in a brackish E. coli stew across louisiana and mississippi?
 
zenith-nadir said:
Tell me Diogenes. Why are you defending Hollywood celebrating itself are while unclaimed bodies are floating in a brackish E. coli stew across louisiana and mississippi?
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Why are you hanging around the JREF forums while those bodies go unclaimed?



Uhh, did you get the part about ' matter of degree' ?
 
Diogenes said:
Why are you hanging around the JREF forums while those bodies go unclaimed?
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Katrina has created a humanitarian crisis worse than any natural disaster in U.S. history. But the real travesty is my objection to "chocolate consultants", "digital cameras" and "luxury getaways" given to the actors at the Emmys tonight. What I should really do is shut up and give all of my disposable income to Katrina survivors while I help claim bodies in louisiana and mississippi before I can have that opinion.... :rolleyes:
 
zenith-nadir said:
Katrina has created a humanitarian crisis worse than any natural disaster in U.S. history. But the real travesty is my objection to "chocolate consultants", "digital cameras" and "luxury getaways" given to the actors at the Emmys tonight. What I should really do is shut up and give all of my disposable income to Katrina survivors while I help claim bodies in louisiana and mississippi before I can have that opinion.... :rolleyes:
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That would be my point, yes..
As far as I know, the Emmy presenters are not being hypocritical about the gifts they are about to receive..

Are you supporting these insideous Hollywoodites by watching television? :eek:
 
geni said:
You said you had a moral objection. You posted here so you must think that matters to some degree.
Click to expand...

Nothing says "critical thinking" like ridiculing someone for posting their opinion on a forum in a post about your opinion in that same forum.
 
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