GM votes itself off the island

Stretching corporate America’s credibility gap even further than it already is, General Motors had this explanation yesterday for why it has ended its sponsorship with CBS’ Survivor: According to this UPI story, it’s because it is “too difficult to try and integrate an automobile into a program that’s set on an island”—not that this season’s format pits tribes of different races against each other, an idea that has proven to be just a tad controversial. Maybe, just maybe, the company’s explanation is true, but saying that the company is pulling the sponsorship because of the show’s island setting sounds specious—when the show’s premise has been to systematically (altogether now) “vote people off the island.” GM is finally stumbling across this fact seven years into the show? Sheesh. Next thing you know Coke will pull out of American Idol because some of the contestants can’t sing.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

August 31, 2006 | Permalink