Please note that this post contains possible spoilers for Pixar’s upcoming film “Finding Dory.”

As we reported a few weeks ago, Magnolia Pictures’ documentary “Blackfish,” which makes the case that orca whales in captivity suffer physical and mental distress, prompted SeaWorld Entertainment to launch a full-fledged PR campaign. Now, it seems, the publicity surrounding the film and the theme park has inspired Pixar to re-think the storyline for “Finding Dory“, its sequel to ‘Finding Nemo.”

“The script for Finding Dory, which is still in the early stages of production ahead of its planned 2015 release, initially had an ending that involved a marine park, according to a Pixar employee,” reports the New York Times. “But as a result of the sometimes harsh Blackfish, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, and the resulting publicity battle SeaWorld has had to fight, Pixar decided to restructure that part of the story so that the fish and mammals taken to its aquatic center have the option to leave.”

So… it’s more like a fish hotel than an aquatic theme park? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

We do wonder, though — just as we did when SeaWorld launched its no-holds-barred PR battle before “Blackfish” was even released — if such a preemptive move was wholly necessary. Read more

The woman at left is beautiful. She’s also an engineer. And as LinkedIn recently learned the hard way, those two things are not, in fact, mutually exclusive.

Toptal, a small developer networking platform, had featured this image in its ads for engineers, which appeared on LinkedIn. After “many LinkedIn members complained” about the image, the tech giant pulled the ads, telling Toptal that the promos could be run again once the picture in question had been replaced by “different images, related to the product.”

In other words, LinkedIn assumed an inherent disconnect between the image of a beautiful woman and a tech career like engineering.

Outraged by LinkedIn’s decision, CEO of Toptal, Taso Du Val (who I am proud to call a former classmate), wrote a scathing blog post, titled: “In Defense of Female Engineers.” In the original post, Du Val wrote, in part:

“Today was a disappointing day at Toptal. We saw extreme sexism within the tech community, from an industry leader and advertising partner that we work with quite extensively: LinkedIn…Are they seriously siding with people who complained to LinkedIn that our female software engineers are offensive?…these (and others) are our real engineers that we have signed contracts with. And even if they were only stock photography, who cares? The point is, they’re perfectly fine and represent normal professional people. Our male versions are no different. They’re male engineers, smiling, some with glasses, some without; the whole idea LinkedIn had was just ridiculous.

The fact of the matter is: members of the tech community (LinkedIn users) saw it as impossible that our female engineers could actually be engineers, and a leader of the tech community (LinkedIn) agreed with them. Unfortunately we’re banned from showing anything except 100%, all male software advertisements from now on and so, that’s what you’ll be getting. I’m disappointed both on a personal and professional level. I expect better.” Read more

Women’s rights group Women, Action, & The Media (WAM), one of the organizations that blew the whistle on Facebook’s failure to crack down on misogynistic content this past May, has now set its sites on Clear Channel.

Recently, the South Wind Women’s Center in Wichita, KS, which provides access to full-spectrum reproductive healthcare — including abortion care — tried to run ads for their services on several local radio stations owned by media conglomerate Clear Channel. Clear Channel, however, pulled them off the air for violating “decency standards.” But those same stations, WAM points out, run ads for the local “adult boutique,” without similar concerns about decency.

In response to Clear Channel’s decision, WAM, in partnership with the South Wind Women’s Center, launched the #changethechannel campaign in order to insist that women’s health care is never indecent, and that everyone has the right to know where they can get medical care.

Since the launch of the effort, thousands of citizens in Wichita and across the country have phoned, emailed and tweeted the Wichita Clear Channel office as well as Clear Channel’s corporate representatives, calling on the company to run the ads. Many thousands more have signed petitions to the same effect.

Amidst the uproar, the GM of Clear Channel in Wichita, Rob Burton, left his post on July 31 without public explanation. Burton had been responsible for the final call to pull the ads. A few days before his sudden departure, he had said simply, “As members of the Wichita community, KZSN has a responsibility to use our best judgment to ensure that advertising topics and content are as non-divisive as possible for our local audience.” Read more

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill into law that bans ”propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” and threatens openly gay or “pro-gay” citizens and foreigners with fines, arrests and possible jail time. Another new law restricts adoptions of Russian children by people in countries that allow same-sex marriage.

With the 2014 Winter Olympics set to take place in Sochi, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) says it has received assurances ”from the highest level of government in Russia that the legislation will not affect those attending or taking part in the Games.” It pledged to ensure there would be no discrimination against athletes, officials, spectators or the media during the games.

Many equal-rights activists are unimpressed with the IOC’s response, and feel that whether or not the laws directly affect the games is far from the point. ”They should be advocating for the safety of all LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people in Russia, not simply those visiting for the Olympics,” said Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin. ”Rescinding this heinous law must be our collective goal.”

In order to make their voices heard, activists have been writing petitions and staging boycotts.

The “Dump Russian Vodka” campaign, started by internationally syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage, has prompted bars across the US, UK, Canada and Australia to stop serving Russian brands like Stolichnaya. In response, Stolichnaya’s CEO Val Mendeleev wrote an open letter last week condemning the recent laws and reaffirming the brand’s commitment to the LGBT community. The brand’s website has also undergone an overhaul, and now features a rainbow block of text boasting that the brand “stands strong and proud with the global LGBT community against the attitude and actions of the Russian government.” (We’d call this a winning damage control response) Read more

Are you an ambitious, street-smart young scribe eager to expose L.A.’s seedy underbelly to the world at large? Do you decry the decline of quality reporting and live to shame the lamestream media? Most importantly, do you know your current thetan count? If you answered yes, duh, and “praise overlord Xenu!” to these questions, then The Church of Scientology wants you…to write for its in-house magazine, Freedom.

Freedom promotes “investigative reporting in the public interest,” with “the public” meaning Tom Cruise, David Miscavige, and whoever else runs the world’s most secretive tax-exempt organization. In what can only be the most incredible coincidence in history, every single article in said magazine amounts to a little piece of the church’s never-ending damage control campaign.

The most common subject is the fact that church apostates are all a bunch of fat, stupid-head liars who like to tell lies just because they are mean and evil for no reason at all except that every one of them is addicted to drugs and doesn’t get enough vitamins. For what it’s worth, the website does make good use of some strange pop-up animation.

Read more

Rather than lying low and waiting for the storm to pass as companies profiled in unflattering documentary exposés often do, SeaWorld, advised by the communications firm 42West, has taken the opposite approach.

Before last week’s New York and Los Angeles release of the Magnolia Pictures documentary “Blackfish,” which makes the case that orca whales in captivity suffer physical and mental distress, SeaWorld Entertainment took preemptive action in an attempt to prevent potential damage to its reputation.

About a week before the film’s release, the company sent a detailed critique of the movie to about 50 critics who were presumably about to review it. Among other things, SeaWorld claims that “Blackfish” exceeded the bounds of fair use by using training film and other video shot by the company. SeaWorld also says that filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite deliberately positioned some scenes to create what SeaWorld executives claim is a false implication of wrongdoing. Additionally, by midweek last week the company was providing top executives and animal caretakers for interviews about the movie. Read more

When I logged into my social media accounts early this morning, all seemed generally quiet — Facebook was filled with the cat videos and snarky memes that mid-week duldrums often produce, and nothing really jumped out at me on Twitter. However, In the time it took me to drive home from my in-laws’ (roughly two hours), those same social media accounts had exploded with angry posts, shared articles, and multiple invitations to join boycotts. The source of the ire? The latest cover of Rolling Stone.

The cover responsible for the sudden and fierce firestorm features a self-taken portrait of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and promises that the accompanying story will explain “how a popular, promising student was failed by his family, fell into radical Islam, and became a monster.”

Though the same picture has been featured in other publications, including on the front page of The New York Times this past spring, the outrage seems to stem from the fact that it appears on a cover generally reserved for music’s brightest stars and the Hollywood elite who have officially “made it big.” By featuring Tsarnaev on its cover, many feel that Rolling Stone is glamorizing him. Read more

A lawsuit against Target has brought to light an employee training document –”Organization Effectiveness, Employee and Labor Relations Multi-Cultural Tips” – that offers advice to managers who work with Hispanics. According to court documents, Target was thoughtful enough to remind those in charge that:

a. Food: not everyone eats tacos and burritos;

b. Music: not everyone dances to salsa;

c. Dress: not everyone wears a sombrero;

d. Mexicans (lower education level, some may be undocumented);

e. Cubans (Political refugees, legal status, higher education level); and

f. They may say ‘OK, OK’ and pretend to understand, when they do not, just to save face.

*Clears throat.*

Oh.

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Slate writer David Plotz is calling a recent email he received the “most offensive marketing pitch of all time.” After reading it ourselves, we’d be hard pressed to disagree.

On Tuesday morning, Plotz received an email from someone at Rightster, a London-based video distribution company, proposing that the recent beheading of a Brazilian soccer referee could prove to be a “great AD REVENUE generating opportunity.”

The email read as follows (bold/caps were in original email):

Disgusted, Plotz attempted to contact the person responsible for the email, but instead received a response from a Rightster spokesperson, saying: “We regret deeply and are very sorry for the email and the offense it has caused. The individual involved will be disciplined and we will review our policies and procedures to ensure this does not happen again.” Read more

Instinctively, something has always told us that any place offering unlimited shrimp and steak for around ten dollars must be too good to be true. Most unfortunately for national buffet chain Golden Corral, a disgruntled employee recently released a self-made video that proves — at least in one case — that such wariness might be warranted.

The video, made by Golden Corral cook Brandon Huber, exposes some gag-worthy food-storage methods employed by the Port Orange, Florida location. In an effort to avoid a poor health inspection rating, Huber says that employees were instructed to temporarily hide food outside the restaurant beside the dumpsters (oh, the irony).

Before releasing the video online, Huber reportedly attempted to address the issue with management, but his concerns allegedly fell upon deaf ears. After his story was passed over by local media outlets, Huber decided to try his case in the court of public opinion.

In response to the video, which has now been viewed on YouTube over 2 million times, Golden Corral posted the following in the comments section: Read more