The Rehabilitation of Dow Chemical

I was at the New York Times website yesterday and saw this banner ad for Dow Chemical. "Bhopal," I thought. It seemed an odd choice of images and a subject one would expect them to avoid. I clicked on the ad and was taken to a page that cycles through three ultra-slick videos trumpeting their deep sense of corporate responsibility. Dow Chemical, who has also blessed the world with napalm, Agent Orange, and numerous toxic waste dumps for which they continue to evade responsibilty.

Above is the Yes Men's famous BBC interview on the twentieth anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, in which a Dow Chemical spokesperson — Jude Finesterra — announces that Dow will liquidate Union Carbide and use the $12 billion to compensate each of the victims, clean the site, commit to transparency, and fund full research into all Dow Products. "We do not want to be a company that sells products that may have long-term negative effects on the world." Brilliant.