"Farmer Dave": I Ain't Buying It

It happened again. A seemingly innocuous e-mail giving a thumbs-up to my blog, but it set my Spidey Senses tingling immediately. (The Hotmail address didn't help: did you read the story about the big companies who automatically rejected job applicants if they had Hotmail addresses? Yep.)

Hi Tana,

Great site! Being a North Dakotan, I definitely support the farming way of life.
I came across this blog from Farmer Dave a Florida citrus grower that made me smile: http://www.orangediaries.com

Cheers,
Kristen

_______________________

I took a glance, already knowing I'd find some B.S. marketing apparatus at the "weblog," and was instantly gratified in my suspicions.

I wrote back to Kristen: "He doesn't look organic. Am I wrong?" Seven minutes later, she replied, "I can't say whether he is organic or not, but given the choice between organic and local, I'll take American grown anytime. What's your stance?"

So I rolled up my sleeves and wrote the following response, which she seemingly had blocked (at least that's what Hotmail claimed*. (That's what pissed me off enough to publish this rant.)

Kristen:

I live in California—for 25 years or so. I'll take California oranges any day of the week.

As a native of the Deep South, and having been a resident of (with tons of family, including a former State Senator, in) the insane state of Florida, I'll take California anything over Florida anything any day of the week.

Were I to live elsewhere, like the middle of the country equidistant from either state, where oranges do not grow, I would buy organic oranges over non-organic, none from foreign countries because of the carbon footprint, and generally would not patronize Florida crops due to the election theft from Jeb Bush and his corrupt cronies in 2000.

Also, a brief scratch of the surface of that "farmer" tells me he's pimping for this corporation:

http://www.floridasnatural.com/juices_faq.php

Any FAQ that doesn't mention the words "organic" or "sustainable" tells me all I need to know.

I also think it's 100% marketing bullshit that someone is sending this man crates of imported oranges. That is just exactly the kind of idiotic idea that some pinhead advertiser or marketer or image consultant would come up with to justify the existence of such a fake collection of writing, all extolling the alleged virtues of the Florida orange. How do I know this? Because I clicked on the "comments" section, and see that the whole blog is hosted by FloridaNaturals.com. DOH!!

Shills, shills, shills, everywhere.

Luckily for me, we mute commercials in my house, and can think for ourselves.

I'm not fooled one bit, nor amused enough to watch one of the idiotic videos of him destroying the "foreign" oranges. My best guess is: xenophonic Republican living in the dark ages, using Monsanto or Dow chemicals to rape the earth for the greatest profit.

How'd I score?

That's what I thought, too!!

Signed,
Not Fooled

Honestly—does anyone actually believe that some anonymous donor is sending crates of imported oranges to a citrus grower in Florida? Who writes this crap?

• • • • • • • • • • •

That's all I've got time for today.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy." — Woody Allen.

Thanks for visiting. And thanks, Kristen, for the grist.

Read Derrick's comment below for an interesting response to marketing tools.

*This is what came from Hotmail:

SMTP: host 65.54.244.232: 550 SC-004 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. A block has been placed against your IP address because we have received complaints concerning mail coming from that IP address. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for help. Email/network admins, we recommend enrolling in our Junk E-Mail Reporting Program (JMRP), a free program intended to help senders remove unwanted recipients from their e-mail list: http://postmaster.live.com

UPDATE: Kristen says she did not block me, and had only intended a friendly conversation. I have overreacted, but it's not surprising, given all the insincere and insubstantial emails complimenting my blog, and then linking to a website that clearly has nothing to do with what I write about. In this case, corporate orange juice.

Comments

[Derrick Schneider]

Did you see that Wired's editor recently published his blacklist of email addresses from PR flacks who send him meaningless borderline spam? It caused a big uproar -- a number of people pointed out that Wired isn't innocent of mass mailings -- but it's an interesting stance to take from such an in-the-spotlight writer.

See: http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/10/sorry-pr-people.html?cid=88149552

[Leah]

Hi Tana,

Good for you for exposing her/them. It makes me think of other companies (specifically baby formula) who are behind websites that are seemingly in favor of the alternative (if that makes any sense). There's an award for such things: http://www.prwatch.org/node/6712. Maybe Florida's Natural should be nominated? Thanks for a great blog. I enjoy reading it.

[Nancy]

Great rant! You sound like you are still mad as hell about 2000 - me too.

Do you think Woody Allen was talking about Bush?

PS What's wrong with a hotmail account?!?

[Riana]

you are awesome! great job!! and i love the jeb bush reference too.

[Gretta]

Seriously, did you think they were actually trying to be sneaky? Bravo to you for figuring out an advertisement is an advertisement! Besides, what's wrong with promoting the consumption of food grown in the U.S.? You said yourself you wouldn't eat food from foreign countries. If your big concern is preserving the earth from being "raped for profit" then promoting Florida orange juice, organic or not, is a great way to do it. As soon as those orange growers can't make a profit b/c everyone's buying foreign grown products, they're forced to sell their land and it is converted into rooftops. Personally, I'd take pesticides any day over condominiums.

And not quite sure what any of that has to do with the 2000 election. I'm fairly confident the farmers in Florida are not responsible.

[Tana]

Dear Gretta:

I do feel that presenting a marketing campaign that uses every opportunity to tout a commercially (and environmentally unhealthy) sponsored product is dishonest. Yes, I think it's trying to be sneaky, at least trying to sneak up on all the simple-minded people that watch television commercials and think they reflect reality.

I know when I'm being manipulated, and I try to wake others up to that possibility as well.

But I agree with your point about the condominiums, and it's a good one.

I do eat food from foreign countries, but not from China, for starters. Most of my food is locally sourced, but I still indulge in tea, spices, and certain Italian goodies that are irresistible to me. I am transparently hypocritical, that I admit. Heh.

Thanks for the comments: I do appreciate your spirit.