In many cases, the onset of reality TV has been a boon for organizations seeking PR. There was a A&E cop show (crime360.vodpod.com) on earlier this year that used an instrument (www.leica-geosystems.com) to record a 3-D model of crime scenes that the investigators used as a key part of the investigation. The main character was really the instrument. Product placement (www.americanidol.com) has become a key part of many shows.
The wife and I are big animal lovers. You'd think that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society would have a dream come true in its "Whale Wars" reality series on Animal Planet. In my mind, it is more like a nightmare.
SSCS is lauded by some for their PR savvy, but this series seems to best showcase the bungling and ineptitude produced when they take a bunch of trust-funders out on a noble quest.
They did a great job of recruiting pretty people as crew members of the ship The Steve Irwin. But they are neophytes to ocean going, and the cringe-inducing show seems to largely generate its drama by the SS crew bumbling about on the high seas.
They damage a helicopter blade. They bust the winch. The joyriders in the runabouts don't bother to check in, leaving the ship stressed over whether they are freezing to death in the water. The engines die and they have to steam back to Australia to repair it. The volunteer crew has a near mutiny thanks to the disrepect shown them by the SS staff/regular crew, and many leave. A new crew member busts his thumb badly during the first operation on their return to the whaling grounds.
They keep talking about saving whales, but it seems they mainly waste a lot of time and fuel traipsing around the ocean until they screw the next thing up.
They want to be seen as bad boys of the sea, but come across more like keystone cops.
Don't get me wrong, the research whaling that the Japanese do is a farce, and I certainly support efforts to protect whales; I'm just not sure that this -- or, at least, this way of documenting it -- is the way to go.
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