Green Options » Bill Gates

Bill Gates Forced to Support GMO’s (cartoon)

Joe Mohr — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:13:52 +0000

Mean Joe Green #77: Bill Gates Forced to Support GMO’s

I think Bill may be a bit confused about Apple’s success…

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Cause Marketing Hits The Small Screen – Viacom Programs Funded by The Gates Foundation

mcmilker — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:36:39 +0000

I didn’t get much past the headline, Messages With a Mission, Embedded in TV Shows before getting that eerie feeling that I was reading something momentous. OK- not momentous like in the general sense, but rather in the way this changes a time-honored tradition in marketing.

…the Gates Foundation is set to expand its involvement and spend more money on influencing popular culture through a deal with Viacom, the parent company of MTV and its sister networks VH1, Nickelodeon and BET. It could be called “message placement”: the social or philanthropic corollary to product placement deals in which marketers pay to feature products in shows and movies. Instead of selling Coca-Cola or G.M. cars, they promote education and healthy living.

For years, those of us involved with cause marketing have relied on inking deals with manufacturers to support our causes and relying on government funding, public service announcements, paid advertising and public relations efforts to get our message to the people. Now a whole new era of personal responsibility has opened up new doors to new ways of getting the word out.

James Steyer, chief executive of Common Sense Media, which promotes family-oriented entertainment, said foundations typically seek to mold television programs with just advice and prodding.

“The difference here is the Gates Foundation is paying for this, that they are actually willing to pay for programming,” Mr. Steyer said.

Bill Gates invests in The Great Green Hope - Algae Fuel

Adam Shake — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:29:07 +0000

Editor’s Note: This is a guest contribution from Adam Shake.

Bill Gates has his hands in the green again, but this time, it’s algae. His Investment Firm, Cascades Investments LLC, along with the Rockefeller family’s venture capital firm Venrock, the WellcomeTrust, and Arch Venture Partners have invested a total of 100 million dollars in Sapphire Energy.

Sapphire Energy, a San Diego based company that launched in May of 2007, says that it’s goal “is to be the world’s leading producer of renewable petrochemical products.” The companies website goes on to say “Critically important, there is no ‘food vs. fuel’ tradeoff. The process is not dependent on crops or valuable farmland. It is highly water efficient, delivering 10 to 100 times more energy per acre than cropland biofuels.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Sapphire is working towards a 10,000-barrel-a-day algae-based oil facility, and can now concentrate on production and engineering problems. Meanwhile, Gates’s involvement may signal a broader interest in alternative biofuels.”