National Park Service Shouldn't Be Selling Branding Rights to a Beer Company

[MattSh]

The organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) recently criticized a US National Park Service (NPS) decision to grant "co-branding" rights to Anheuser-Busch in return for a $2.5 million fee.

In a news release, PEER calls the agreement

a misguided means of reaching out to youth and broadening public support for parks.... To consummate the deal, NPS had to waive its long-standing policy against identifying national parks with "alcohol or tobacco products."

The exclusive "Proud Partner" agreement allows Budweiser to roll-out "patriotic packaging featuring the iconic silhouette of Lady Liberty," in the words of a corporate press release. The authorizing memo signed by NPS Director Jon Jarvis on January 21, 2015 calls for "aligning the economic and historical legacies of two iconic brands…with a corporate entity that has the same goals surrounding relevancy, diversity and inclusion" so as "to distribute our brand across the country."

Complete story at - http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/national-park-service-shouldn-t-be-selling-branding-rights-to-a-beer-company

[onehandle]

1. Especially, shitty beer. nt

[Wilms]

2. .

[Generic Other]

10. This reminds me of an old Robert Heinlein story

where some soda pop company nuked their logo onto the moon so that is was clearly and permanently visible on earth!

[hatrack]

3. Enough. FUCKING. ENOUGH.

[shenmue]

4. Yeah

Yipes!

[alarimer]

5. Will they be selling naming rights next?

PNC Bank Yosemite National Park?

[corkhead]

6. They'll have to keep Yosemite in the name only to keep us from confusing it with a baseball stadium

[olddots]

7. Hooters has a bid in for the Great Tetons

Our contry has always been for sale unfortunately .

[Art_from_Ark]

9. I see what you did there

[Eleanors38]

8. As the Far Right grows ever more extreme, the goal of privatizing everything...

WILL include divestment by the Feds of huge tracts of land, returning them to the states. Of course, the states (already franchises of the GOP and corporations) have no way to maintain and manage these lands, so they will be sold off to private interests. While Busch may not be in league with the dismantling of federal lands, it sees them as just another way to monetize public assets. Take note that even conservative outdoor magazines like American Hunter are now speaking out against this latest extremism.

I wish liberal culture would get its head out of sophisticated urban smog and take seriously forging bonds with outdoors organizations, some of which are powerful. The massive & despoiling mining blowout planned in Alaska, has thus far been stopped in its tracks by a coalition of hunting/fishing/outdoor organizations who have considerable influence.