Irony

As everyone knows, traveling is about gaining new experiences.  So, this morning, I was watching the morning news as I was eating breakfast, which is something I never do.  Between weather reports (highs of 90, lows of 75) there were frequent advertisements on TV--who knew?  Some of them are incredibly silly, featuring talking cheese, and animated chocolate.  My favourite, however, was a commercial for tourism in the Gulf of Mexico.  There were images of fishing, swimming with dolphins, white sand beaches and luxury boat rides.  At the end a small footnote showed sponsorship by BP! 

 

Lets check the irony of this commercial. 

BP is sponsoring an ad for tourism in the Gulf—featuring lots of pristine, pure water.  Is this supposed to be some sort of guilty conscience thing?  In fact, it is.  As of 2010, the U.S. Travel Association wanted BP to establish a $500 million fund to promote tourism in the Gulf Coast region.  Its funny how issues are so short lived in the media; our culture has such short attention spans.  The BP oil fiasco, which I assume is still an ecological hazard, has completely vanished from mainstream media.