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Corporation Buys Texas Town
"DISH, Texas, Nov 16, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- EchoStar
Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH), its DISH Network(TM)
satellite TV service and the town of Clark, Texas, announced
today that the town of Clark has accepted DISH Network's
challenge to re-brand itself as part of the DISH City Makeover.
As of today, Clark, Texas, a small tight-knit bedroom community
located a half hour north of Fort Worth, Texas, has legally
changed its name to DISH, Texas. In exchange, DISH Network has
agreed to provide every household in the town of DISH 10 years
of free basic satellite TV programming, including equipment and
standard installation. DISH Network introduced the DISH City
Makeover as part of recent re-branding efforts and a new
advertising campaign trumpeting "Better TV for All.""
[http://dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=473745].
Our social fabric has been selling out to corporations for
years, but more so in the past fifteen years. School District 11
located in Colorado Springs, Colorado was the first public
school district to solidify a deal with a corporation, thus
meaning they would receive funding for advertising. In the early
1990's, Coca-Cola struck a 4 year, 28 million dollar deal. The
only catch was that the school district had to sell a quota of
Coca-Cola products each school year, which resulted in [amongst
other things] teachers allowing students to bring a 20-oz. Coke
to class. Residents of Colorado Springs
still see Coke
advertisements on the side of school buses. A woman in
Connecticut attempted to sell the name of her unborn child in
order to raise money. She solicited Pepsi and Starbucks...to no
avail, so she then tried to auction the name on Ebay with a
10,000 dollar minimum bid. Ebay removed the auction. The list
continues and the stories are too numerous for this editorial...
Corporations have the money to do just about anything. They fund
schools, universities, sports teams, and now they purchase
townships. As a culture, we are weak in the presence of the
almighty dollar. It would appear that the only way for
institutions to raise a large amount of money would be to
solicit corporations. Do private donations and fundraisers come
close to comparing with the money that corporations offer? No,
and such efforts normally yield little revenue for hours of
work. As Americans, we have to ask ourselves at what point we
draw the line. How about military vehicles blazing across the
desert with Starbucks logos emblazoned on the side? What about
McDonald's sponsoring the Catholic Church...could you imagine
McNugget coupons falling out of a hymn book when opened? Only we
can decide what we will and will not tolerate. However, as long
as we remain a materialistic culture, we can be sure that the
line will continually be pushed as we are pacified with free
satellite television for ten years.
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