The Hightower Report

Commercialism Underground

Corporate ads and logos are everywhere – in taxicabs, movies, and parks, as well as on gas pumps, airplane fold-down trays, and school buses. So why not on Luke Ryan's guitar case?

For 30 years, Ryan has been a busker, singing tunes in New York City's subways. He keeps his old, beat-up guitar case – held together by duct tape – open in front of him in hopes that passers-by will drop in some coins or dollar bills. That decrepit case itself is a part of Ryan's money pitch, for he sticks a cardboard sign in it that pleads, "Pimp My Case."

And now someone has! Not a sympathetic commuter on the way to a train, but the Dutch-based multibillion-dollar conglomerate Unilever. The giant didn't add any flashy styling to Ryan's guitar case – it simply got him to put a printed sign in it that reads: "Axe Instinct." Axe is a deodorant-maker owned by Unilever, and Instinct is a new leather-scented product that it's marketing. So the veteran busker has been hired for four months to be a huckster, paid about $1,000 to display the Axe sign, offer samples if anyone inquires, and sing a song a few times a day titled, "Look Good in Leather."

Interviewed by The New York Times, Ryan says he had sworn never to sell out. But today's economy is tough even on subway singers, so when Unilever asked him, he said, "Well, why not?" Besides, he says, commercial branding is plastered all over the subway, so no one seems to notice his subtle Axe ad. In addition, Ryan thinks more deodorant sales would be a social plus. "If there was more of that stuff going on in the subway," he notes, "it'd be a better place."

The vast clutter of corporate commercialism in our society doesn't do any good for anyone, while being intrusive to everyone. But at least this gimmick by Unilever is helping Luke Ryan – I'm all for that.

Ventriloquist Dummy Lawmakers

After the landmark health insurance reform bill passed in November, several Congress critters set forth their views about the legislation in statements inserted into the Congressional Record. For example, Rep. Michael Conaway of Texas made this comment: "I do believe the sections relating to the creation of a market for biosimilar products is one area of the bill that strikes the appropriate balance."

Rep. Lynn Jenkins of Kansas added her views: "I do believe the sections relating to the creation of a market for biosimilar products is one area of the bill that strikes the appropriate balance." Also, Rep. Lee Terry of Nebraska put in his two cents' worth, declaring: "I do believe the sections relating to the creation of a market for biosimilar products is one area of the bill that strikes the appropriate balance."

Hmmm. I don't know what "biosimilar products" are, but the comments by these three Republicans are not just similar; they are identical! Do all Republican lawmakers think exactly alike, or is something else going on here?

It's something else. All three were parroting words written and handed to them by lobbyists for Genentech, a huge, Swiss-owned biotech corporation. Genentech just happens to have a lot of money riding on restricting this biosimilar market, so it was eager to have the official record on this provision of the health bill reflect its special-interest viewpoint.

Genentech lobbyists did not stop with the three Republicans. At least 22 Republican House members and 20 Democrats were willing to be spoon-fed Genentech's views, all of them regurgitating language that the lobbyists wrote. Asked about the ethics of using lawmakers as ventriloquist dummies, one lobbyists said: "This happens all the time. There's nothing nefarious about it."

Wow, having it happen once is alarming. Having it happen "all the time" is appalling. And nefarious.