GE, one of the world's biggest polluters, sponsors a carbon offsets credit card that lets cardholders put a 1% cash rebate on purchases toward projects that help mitigate global warming.The Federal Trade Commission is looking into the booming business of selling carbon offsets, which are billed as a way "to balance the emissions created by, say, using a laptop computer or flying on a jet." Deborah Platt Majoras, chairwoman of the FTC feels that with the tremendous growth in the field, there is potential for abuse of the public's trust. The last revision of the FTC's environmental advertising guidelines was in 1997, and did not include terms common today, like sustainability, carbon offsets or renewable energy. "As more companies use offset programs to create an environmental halo over their products, the commission said it was growing increasingly concerned that some green marketing assertions were not substantiated. Environmentalists have a word for such misleading advertising: 'greenwashing.'" Corporations that are offering carbon offset credits to consumers include Dell, Continental Airlines, General Electric, Bank of America, and Volkswagen. "The FTC has not accused anyone of wrongdoing -- neither the providers of carbon offsets nor the consumer brands that sell them. But environmentalists say -- and the FTC's hearings suggest -- that it is only a matter of time until the market faces greater scrutiny from the government or environmental organizations."

"We are profoundly concerned that the government's approach was designed to provide particular and limiting answers," announced a spokesperson for the British nuclear consultation group. The independent group of energy economists and nuclear advisers condemned the British government's second attempt at developing a national energy policy, saying that "the government's plans to force through a new generation of nuclear power stations" is "undemocratic and possibly illegal," reported John Vidal. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government had been preparing to announce "a major expansion of nuclear power," which could result in 20 new nuclear reactors. The consultation process included meetings and thousands of public comments, but environmental groups say "the questions [asked] were loaded and the information presented biased and inaccurate." A complaint was also filed against the market research firm involved. Greenpeace won a court decision against the British government's first energy consultation, but will wait for its response to the new criticism before launching another legal challenge.

Photo from Wikimedia CommonsCartoon heroes are being "called upon to rescue the battered image of a very real-world institution -- the United Nations," reports Simon Usborne. The UN is partnering with Marvel Comics on a comic book to be released later this year. The comic "is expected to be set in a war-torn fictional country and feature heroes including Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, as well as workers from UN agencies such as children's charity UNICEF and blue helmets of the peacekeeping forces. Eventually, the work will be translated into several other languages ... but it is American schoolchildren who the UN plans to target first. ... The comic will be distributed free to one million U.S. school children." The UN says it hopes the comic teaches "the value of international co-operation," and sensitizes students "to the problems faced in other parts of the world." Marvel Comics has previously adopted political causes, mostly in favor of U.S. policies. In 1971, Marvel's Stan Lee penned a Spider-Man story on "the destructive force of narcotics," at the request of the U.S. government.

Australia's 1992 Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act prohibited most forms of tobacco advertising, making it more difficult for tobacco companies to promote their products. Despite the law, an Australian market-research firm called Feedback Plus was found to be distributing free cigarettes in a program it said was a "taste-testing survey" being carried out as part of a "marketing research" program. Participants received free, unbranded packs of cigarettes that carried only a health warning, were told to take them home, smoke them and fill out a survey. Participants received A$50 per survey and up to 200 free cigarettes per week, for up to six to eight weeks. Once the cigarette give-away was discovered, the Federal Health Department reprimanded the marketing research firm and the program was shut down. Feedback Plus distributed an email about the survey last November in which it sought smoking and non-smoking participants, and said that all "had a chance at winning an instant $200 cash."

The migration of sponsored video news releases (VNRs) and B-roll footage from television stations to websites is increasing. Major companies are "bypassing the press and going directly to the masses," in part because of increased scrutiny of fake news, according to Brandweek. An Allstate representative said posting the videos to their website "started as an experiment," but is now the norm. General Motors's director of broadcast communications explained, "We're just trying to get impressions out." Bev Yehuda of the PR firm MultiVu agreed: "Our customers are no longer reliant on broadcasters to tell their stories." In related news, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) marked the holiday season with "a series of initiatives to offer consumers tips for avoiding pirated music," including an alarmist VNR. As Consumerist.com noted, the RIAA video was "leaked (promoted?) heavily by the [public relations] company that produced it," so "keep your bullshit 'stealth marketing' sensors up."

The pharmaceutical industry often uses the need for research and development funds as an excuse for exorbitant drug prices. But a new study by Marc-Andre Gagnon and Dr. Joel Lexchin out of York University (Canada), titled "The Cost of Pushing Pills: A New Estimate of Pharmaceutical Promotion Expenditures in the United States," shows that publicity, not R&D, eat up the biggest percentage of U.S. drug price tags. "The researchers' estimate is based on the systematic collection of data directly from the industry and doctors during 2004, which shows the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spent 24.4% of the sales dollar on promotion, versus 13.4% for research and development, as a percentage of US domestic sales of US$235.4 billion." Gagnon estimates that the pharmaceutical industry "spent approximately US$61,000 in promotion per physician during 2004." 2004 is the latest year for which complete data is available. "The study's findings supports (sic) the position that the U.S. pharmaceutical industry is marketing-driven and challenges the perception of a research-driven, life-saving, pharmaceutical industry, while arguing in favour of a change in the industry's priorities in the direction of less promotion."

Mr. Duke goes to Washington.Sixty-four of the members of the last Congress resigned, retired, were defeated or are now sitting in jail. As last Sunday's Doonesbury cartoon points out, many of them are on their way to fulfilling the grand Washington tradition of hiring themselves out as lobbyists to lean on their former colleagues. What often flies below the radar, however, are the huge number of congressional staffers who take the opportunity of their bosses leaving to join the lobbying corps themselves. They are prized by K Street not just for their insider knowledge of how Congress works, but also for the extensive contacts they still have with their former coworkers (and subordinates).

Now it's time to drag them into the sunshine. The Sunlight Foundation, CMD's partner in the Congresspedia project, has developed a cool distributed research tool to marry citizen brain power with a fancy new database to figure out who exactly is hiring these insiders, and they want you to participate. Like our other featured participatory projects, many hands can make this formerly daunting task light work.

Once the results are in, the CMD staff will work with the participants to get the results entered into the SourceWatch profiles of the corporations and lobbyists, ensuring that professional reporters and citizen journalists alike will be able to use the information to perform some high-caliber muckraking on the DC influence scene. Even Craigslist's Craig Newmark is participating because, as he says, "This is the 'revolving door' thing, of concern since some staffers, working for shadowy politicians, might do more damage as lobbyists."

Everything you need to know at Sunlight's website. Have fun, and we'll report back soon with the results!