From cars to diapers, the Dr. Seuss character known as The Lorax, created back in 1971 to “speak for the trees,” can be seen promoting one consumer good after another, as part of the new Universal Pictures’ film debuting this week.

 

The use of corporate tie-ins is nothing new for Hollywood movies. But the applying this practice to a tale about a beloved children’s character who preaches conservation has upset some parents groups.

 

“While the story teaches children to conserve the earth’s finite resources, these heavily advertised partnerships compel them to consume, consume, consume,” according to the website of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. “It is both cynical and hypocritical to use a beloved children’s story with a prescient environmental message to sell kids on everything from SUVs to pancakes.”

 

The Lorax has appeared, among others, in the new Mazda CX-5 SUV commercial, on Seventh Generation household products and diapers, and on IHOP’s kids’ menu items like Rooty Tooty Bar-Ba-Looty Blueberry Cone Cakes and Truffula Chip Pancakes.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Save the Lorax (Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood)

'The Lorax' Targeted for its Green Credentials (by Emily Rome, Los Angeles Times)

The Lorax Helps Market Mazda SUVs to Elementary School Children Nationwide (by Emma Brown, Washington Post)

The Lorax (Teaching Children Philosophy)