• by Sean , November 8, 2007

To celebrate the debut of their "year long worldwide investigation" Planet in Peril last month, CNN turned their CNN bug green all day. They said it was to demonstrate their commitment to raising awareness of saving the environment.

I thought it was kind of a neat gimmick. But it was just a gimmick.

Now, this week, NBC has turned their on-screen signature a lovely shade of green. Maybe the NBC logo caught the green bug from CNN's logo. Either way, I'm getting sick of seeing green.

Don't get me wrong, I am a huge advocate for conserving energy, and supporting acts to help save the environment. But please, networks, stop injecting tidbits of "feel good" gimmicks into your mainstream programming in an attempt to make yourselves look like saints.

This past Sunday, on Sunday Night Football, Bob Costas and his co-anchor were suddenly in the dark as they turned the studio lights out "in an attempt to save energy." They were on the air like that for roughly 10 minutes.

OK, that's fine, but it seems like throwing a thimble of ice water onto a southern California wildfire in terms of "solving the problem." It's ridiculous.

Oh wait, this is November, isn't it? Of course the networks are throwing self-serving gimmicks our way; it's sweeps month!