Al Gore's Penguin Army video

"Al Gore's Penguin Army" is a video posted on YouTube on May 24, 2006, spoofing Al Gore and his movie "An Inconvenient Truth". The video appears to be a product of astroturfing. Despite all appearances of being an amateur production, the "Wall Street Journal" discovered that the author of the video was using "a computer registered to DCI Group", a public relations and lobbying firm [ [http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115457177198425388-0TpYE6bU6EGvfSqtP8_hHjJJ77I_20060810.html?mod=blogs "Where Did That Video Spoofing Gore's Film Come From, by Antonio Regalado and Dionne Searcey"] "Wall Street Journal"] led exclusively by Republican party officials. [ [http://www.dcigroup.com/people.html DCI Group "Our People" page] ] At the time the video was made, DCI's clients included General Motors and ExxonMobil. DCI has refused to comment on its involvement with the video. [http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/firm_reports.asp?txtname=DCI+Group&year=2005]

Synopsis

The video opens with a faux "Newsweek" cover quoting Eleanor Clift saying "If you liked "March of the Penguins", you'll love "An Inconvenient Truth"." An umbrella-wielding penguin with the face of Al Gore (taken from art of The Penguin from "") is shown leading a group of smaller penguins (all of which are Tux, the mascot of the Linux kernel) into an ice cave/lecture hall.

Al Gore gives a slide show presentation entitled "Overview of Global Warming". The slide show begins with various unreadable charts. The penguins watching become bored and fall asleep. The presentation continues with a slide showing effects that are attributed to global warming: "Mid East crisis", "The skinnyness of Lindsay Lohan", "Chris Daughtry being voted off American Idol", and "Heather Locklear & David Spade". The final slide shows the following facts: "Record Rain in New England (May 2006)", "Coldest Day in New York City (January 2005)" and "Boston Red Sox win World Series (November 2004)". At the end of the presentation, Al Gore opens and twirls his umbrella, which has a spiral pattern. The twirling of the umbrella hypnotizes the other penguins.

The scene changes to the "Red State Theater". Large crowds of people/penguins are shown going to see "X-Men III", while only three penguins go to see "An Inconvenient Truth". The "X-Men III" audience is shown cheering at their movie, while the audience for "An Inconvenient Truth" falls asleep.

The scene cuts back to Gore in an ice cave/lecture hall with sleeping penguins. Al Gore states "You must take action to stop global warming", oblivious to his sleeping audience. The screen then goes black and heavy metal guitar music plays while a list of "Things you can do to Stop Global Warming" appears on the screen: "Stop Exhaling, Become Vegetarian, Walk Everywhere (no matter the distance), and Take Cold Showers."

The last scene is of a shark leaping up in the ice cave and snatching a lone penguin, followed by the words "The End" on a black screen. Al Gore abruptly pops up and again uses his umbrella at the screen, cackling.

Controversy

The video, which has a "home-made, humorous quality", was posted on YouTube by "Toutsmith," a person who identified himself as a 29-year-old from Beverly Hills. The video was released on May 24, 2006, the same date as the release of "An Inconvenient Truth". Wall Street Journal journalist Antonio Regalado noticed that, despite the amateur production values, a link to the video was the first sponsored listing when he performed a Google search for Al Gore, suggesting to him that someone was paying money to advertise this 'amateur' video. Regalado examined routing information on an e-mail sent by Toutsmith to Regalado and found that the e-mail had been sent from a computer associated with the DCI Group, in Washington, D.C.. [ [http://cacofonix.arts.uwa.edu.au/node/147/play Episode Two] Fake Grass and the Cyber City. 23/09/2006. Retrieved 2006, September 29]

When asked if they created the video, DCI Group responded "We do not disclose the names of our clients, nor do we discuss the work we do on behalf of our clients." [ [http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2273111&page=1 ABC News: Al Gore YouTube Spoof Not So Amateurish ] ] The Wall Street Journal also found that sponsored links to the Al Gore video had been placed on Google, and were taken down after DCI was contacted by the Journal. The identity of the party who paid for the sponsored links remains unknown. [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06215/710851-115.stm Where did that video spoofing Gore's film come from? ] ]

Analysis

The "Wall Street Journal" consulted a professor of communications who described the spoof as "'Propaganda 101'. It contains no factual information, but presents a highly negative image [of Al Gore] ."

References

ee also

*Astroturfing
*DCI Group

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZSqXUSwHRI Original YouTube Video]
* [http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Parody_of_Al_Gore_Film_tied_0803.html Video: Parody of Al Gore film tied to ExxonMobil lobbying firm]
* [http://politics.slashdot.org/politics/06/08/06/209244.shtml Slashdot posting]