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.

About the author: None