EMMY! You let us all down!

Oh, how, how do I get myself into these states of disillusionment? And why do I always (always) feel like the only one who notices these things on YouTube? For every time I notice them, or at least dare to say anything about it, I feel like I am attacked from all sides.

So why am I so surprised at what happened with Emmy (emmymadeinjapan)? Emmy is YouTube’s sweetheart, a Chinese-American who tastes, tests and prepares foods, not just from all over the world but from every part of history. Her treatment of usually-disdained subjects like prison recipes and Depression-era food substitutes is respectful, intriguing, and take us to culinary places we wouldn't otherwise go.

But there is a snake in Eden, and everyone is being very quick to look away.

I've been subscribed to Emmy's channel for years (until yesterday), watched most of her videos, and felt engaged and interested in at least three out of four. But judging by all the lively and downright loving comments from her 1.6 million subscribers, it’s obvious that her personality is a huge factor here. There is a sweetness about her that is not cloying, a sometimes-wacky humour, an open, adventurous and non-judgemental quality we hardly ever see on the internet, and an effort to find SOME good even in her most “iffy” food experiments.

When I discovered she has a separate channel dedicated to beekeeping, raising hens, and other forms of urban homesteading, I assumed she was a serious environmentalist who would be passionate about saving the bees from the alarming wave of extinction about to claim them. Surely she would be aware of  the relentless environmental degradation which has brought her beloved bees to this perilous state, and the mountains of inert plastic we’ve buried our sweet earth under.

But I was wrong about this. So wrong. 

Like most big-box YouTubers, Emmy took on formal sponsors some time ago, with the ad sometimes repeated throughout the video so you can’t just click it away.  Up to now, most of these seemed like  products she endorsed and used herself, like fresh  food delivery, glasses frames, etc. She talks these products up in her personable, accessible way (and in a clear voice that many find soothing). In other words, she has a natural gift for flogging products and making sales.

BUT.

The last video I began to watch was a recipe for some kind of spicy Korean chicken, and I prepared myself for something entertaining – when  she introduced her sponsor for the video.

CLOROX ULTRA CLEAN Disinfecting Kitchen Wipes.

To my profound discomfort and growing dismay, she smilingly and uncritically introduced and demonstrated these single-use, chemically-laden things as something you really need to use for kitchen cleanliness and safety. In fact, she kept pulling them out of the mammoth plastic silo with the CLOROX logo blaring on the front, excitedly demonstrating them with great grinning swipes that just made my heart sink. 

Emmy. 

She did this maybe three or four times in a twelve-minute video. Once I put my jaw back on, I started to look deeper into the subject, which made me feel even worse.

Kitchen wipes, baby wipes, ALL wipes, are single-use. Non-biodegradable. Loaded with bacteria-nuking chemicals, they have plastic in them. Yes. Plastic, that thing the earth is drowning in, that thing which takes up space as big as whole countries and which will soon inhabit more of the ocean than fish. Discarded single-use wipes (whether the manufacturer claims they biodegrade or not) either end up in our already-perilously-endangered waterways, where fish and wild animals die from ingesting them, or in landfills, where they will sit for more than a century, oozing toxic chemicals and not breaking down at all. In fact, the only way to get rid of them is to burn them, spewing out toxic carbon emissions.

These cleaning things? They're not. Clean. At all. 

It was not hard  for me to find horror stories about disposable wipes and the grotesque results of using them once and throwing them away. I had already heard about “fatbergs”, giant lumps of foul waste the size of a BUS, which completely block water systems and are made of BILLIONS of discarded wipes fused together with kitchen grease.

Another article I found stated that single-use antibacterial wipes are about as ineffective and unnecessary as antibacterial hand soap. In other words – it’s a bust. They do nothing that ordinary soap and water won’t do. One article stated that no matter WHAT you wipe your kitchen counter with, the bacteria will begin to regenerate in 20 minutes. A cloth dampened in plain soap and water - and add a few drops of vinegar and/or bleach, if you want - will do just as good a job, and you can throw it in the wash and re-use it. But the massive corporations that push these things have scored a major victory in creating a “need” – a useless, expensive, environmentally disastrous, bogus need. 

I don’t know why I allowed myself to feel so astonished, so – hurt about Emmy’s cheerful, sunny and somewhat sickening endorsement of this environmentally-indefensible product, and how her fans all fell into line and congratulated her on getting the “big bucks” she deserves. Others (strangely) insisted she will put the money she earns back into her videos and into raising her sons, as if they needed to justify or defend her choice of product before anyone even dared to challenge it. Which, as far as I can see, no one did.

When I posted a few dismayed comments after the video, there was quite a lot of angry and nasty backlash (which I expected) from her fans, claiming the links to articles I posted were fake, ridiculous, wrong, and even used words like “MAY harm” and “MIGHT destroy”, rather than “the whole world is going to hell because of this”. I was being dismissed as some kind of party-pooping tree-hugger. I almost heard them saying, "If Emmy does it, it MUST be right." (Or does Emmy's endorsement somehow "make" it right? That's even more frightening.)

I should not have been so naïve about the smoke-and-mirrors world of YouTube. Emmy the beekeeper and hen-raiser is not putting her money where her mouth is. You can’t tell me she doesn’t know about these environmental risks, and how irresponsible it is to not just use but to SELL this toxic shit to the people who love her.  One irate commenter lit into me and said, “Emmy HAD to use that  Clorox wipe. It’s a safety issue. She was cooking CHICKEN!” (I did not remind her that it took her more like six wipes to disinfect the counter.) But what about the other 1.6 million people she is selling them to? Emmy is a trusted figure, a conservationist, a BEEKEEPER for God's sake, and if SHE says it's OK, then a lot of people will think that it somehow must be.

Even if we put all that aside – which I can’t – there is the fact that YouTube “influencers” do just that – they set an example, for good or ill. Emmy is so pure in other ways, so loved, so wholesome and tenderly nurturing of her hens and her bees, that surely we can look the other way and just let this one go by.

BUT. NO.

Climate scientists know that time is running out. So what’s one more huge, sterile-looking, Emmy-dwarfing plastic silo of Clorox wipes? It sure seems to be making Emmy feel happy, judging by her dizzy joy in using them. Watch Emmy swipe, watch Emmy swirl those toxic rags around on her gleaming counter! The studied camera-angles and her exuberant but well-timed-and-practiced body language turn her into the ideal corporate shill.

Is this what eventually happens to you when you get famous? It's a clear example of either moral blindness (and it's hard for me to imagine that someone as  smart as Emmy doesn't see how destructive this product is), or the ruthlessness that seeps into your personality when people tell you a thousand times a day how wonderful you are. 

One way or another, her slightly scary exuberance swooshing and swirling these things around will sift down to the benumbed consumer, who has largely given up on saving a doomed planet. And then there are the kids (including her kids). They pick up on all kinds of things, such as: it’s OK, even desirable, to use and promote and sell chemically-laden pollutants (which don’t even work!) to make money for yourself. 

Emmy, if you love your subscribers the way you seem to, and if you truly care about the planet you live on and its precious wild things, DITCH the corporate sponsorship and the dreadfully damaging products they spew. You don't need them, your subscribers don't need them, NOBODY needs them. No doubt she is oblivious to the profound disconnect between flogging wipes and keeping bees, and most of her fans will continue to support her no matter what she does. So I have unsubscribed from her channel, and from now on will trust no one in the sad, scrambling con game that is YouTube.

ADDENDUM. This is an excerpt from an article in a UK paper that summarizes the environmental catastrophe of disposable wipes. As I look at the gifs I made of a grinning Emmy gleefully pulling out and using one wipe after another (not even using the same wipe twice!), it makes me feel queasy. And sad. 

"Campaigners are urging the government to phase out the astonishing 11 billion wet wipes used in this country each year, many of which are causing an environmental catastrophe. They are behind 93% of blockages in UK sewers and are even changing the shape of our rivers as they pile up on beds and banks.

Scientists say many people are unaware of the damage the wipes are causing, with the vast majority containing non-biodegradable plastic. The industry has flourished with a broad range of wipes for removing make-up, cleaning all types
of skin and surfaces, looking after babies’ bottoms and also to apply insect repellent or sunscreen.

Within the last decade, City to Sea said there had been a 400% increase in the number of used wipes found on beaches. Founder of campaign group Natalie Fee said: ‘The problems with wet wipes are threefold. Those that are flushed, clog up our pipes and sewers and contribute to giant fatbergs. This then makes our sewage systems overflow and other plastics spill into our waterways and seas, putting marine life at risk. Those that are discarded in the bins will often end up in landfill or get incinerated, contributing to carbon emissions. Ideally, we want people to stop using them and treat them like they would any other single-use plastic.’ 

'There are products being used every day in our bathrooms that we don’t think of as plastic that are causing terrible environmental problems. But people are completely unaware. They know about single use plastics, like cups and straws, and they change their habits. But manufacturers do not put proper information on the packing about the amount of plastic and even hint these things can be flushed, which is disastrous. It shouldn’t be possible to sell these products without making clear how harmful to the environment they are. People need to know there are alternatives out there that do not choke our rivers.'

We didn't do the green thing back then

(This is the sort of pass-it-around thing I don't usually like, but the more of it you read the more light bulbs come on.)

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days." The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truly recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

We walked upstairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart-ass young person.

http://margaretgunnng.blogspot.ca/2013/04/the-glass-character-synopsis.html

http://members.shaw.ca/margaret_gunning/betterthanlife.htm

Let's slip away, shall we?

OK, was everything really brown then? Like it is right here?

I don't remember it being brown, but then, I was sitting in the middle of the floor sucking my fist (and come to think of it, I was probably sitting on something brown). Shadows of those early memories still pass across my neurons. They went like this: "SEE the real coffee flavor." "SMELL the real coffee flavor." "TASTE the real coffee flavor."

When I see these things again, and I just saw a slew of them on a not-very-good DVD compilation (too much repetition: do we really need 15 ads with Mr. Whipple squeezing the Charmin, or '60s color ads so degenerated you can't tell what they're selling?), it shakes something loose. I have a reaction. Maybe infantile,

I don't know.

When I saw that classic Maxwell House ad with the coffee percolator, geez, I could smell the goddamn coffee. It's probably the most brilliant ad ever made: starts with a very close shot of the top of a "coffee perc" (the only way to make it then), with that sound to represent the percolation, a sort of coconut-shell melody in irresistable intervals. The type of jingle that fries itself into your brain.

Then the voice-over telling us we WANT TO SMELL and TASTE that coffee. A shot of a very wide, round white cup on a saucer, surrounded by a lot of empty space, slowly being filled.

Then, total genius: a shot of someone picking up the cup and bringing it up to their lips, so that the steaming black coffee gradually fills the entire frame.

I won't tell you the rest. Lots of repetition. The use of circles (ask Walt Disney: that's why everyone loves Mickey Mouse). Clean, uncluttered images. Simplicity. This ad is fucking incredible, and I watched it maybe five or six times, then made my husband watch it while he shook his head at me.

Oh, and then! There were others. "Meet the Swinger, Polaroid Swinger." This was probably the first instant camera. They were "only nineteen dollars, and ninety-five". I don't know if I had one of these, or my brother did. The ad had Ali McGraw in it before she was anyone, and the camera ate her alive. I remember how you had to pull off a disgusting layer of goopy plastic film when the picture had developed, and the warnings not to get it on your skin.

Then this, oh yes: "It's new! It's now! It's flash cube!" This was an incredible invention that allowed you to take four pictures before you had to change the bulb.

Gear.

Beer tabs. This was announced as the greatest invention since the wheel. No more need for those pointy openers (all right, I know you've never seen one). You just - watch this - zip this strip off the top. The woman was left holding a 3-inch, curved, razor-sharp blade. People later reported ripping their feet open on these things. It took the industry a while to get them right. Once they were made smaller, people dropped them inside the can, then swallowed them. You can imagine.

Oh, and this was maybe my favorite. I love those old bubble-shaped cars out of the '40s, what I call Popeye and Bluto cars, bulbous and low-slung. Huge, by today's

standards.

By the '50s, cars had turned ugly. O-o-o-o-o-gg-leeee. I don't know how they ever got so ugly, and fins began to develop and gradually enlarge like mutant

appendages.

I sat through an awful lot of these ads, but the one that made me bark with disbelief was one that began, "They'll know you've arrived - when you drive up in the 1958 EDSEL!"

For those too young to know, Edsel was the white elephant of the car industry. Named after Edsel Pretzelgruber, it was considered to be a can't-fail deal.

Nobody bought it, and no wonder. This car was ugly enough to scare your mother. Enough said.

I liked this one. It was called Slip Away, and at first I thought it was sort of like Pam. It was an aerosol that you sprayed all over your frying pans to make food slide off. But something strange was going on here. You had to bake them in the oven for half an hour. Yes. Bake them. The coating would stay on "for months", though they later described it as permanent.

Well, we know why: the spray was made of Teflon. That's right. In those couple of months, your family would eat the Teflon right along with their fried Spam. This gave a whole new meaning to "permanent".

Various celebs popped up, and most of them were boring, but there were some incredible 15-second spots for Hefty Bags starring Jonathan Winters. These were weirdly funny, like Winters, but most of all they extolled the marvels and obvious virtues of plastic bags.

They were all good! And they kept the place clean and sanitary. This philosophy caught on too well, to the point that we're now having a spot of trouble keeping the planet clean.

Another fave little chuckle: in an ad for Bounty paper towels, a woman's trying to get some ketchup to come out of the traditional glass bottle, and it sprays all over the place. "Ohhhhh! I wish someone would invent ketchup that goes where you want it

to."

Well, dear, hm, yah, maybe, just maybe they've done that, but at what cost? Billions of plastic ketchup bottles sitting for centuries in landfills.

But a small price to pay for hitting that hot dog bang-on.