Greenpeace Spoofs International Herald Tribune

BRUSSELS — Greenpeace published a spoof edition of the International Herald Tribune on Thursday to highlight environmental issues and draw attention to the Copenhagen climate change conference in December.

The Paris-based International Herald Tribune, global edition of the New York Times, complained and, as the spoof also appeared on the Internet, said it had asked the environmental group immediately to remove any fake IHT Web pages.

A statement from the newspaper rejected Greenpeace's argument that it used the brand to praise the IHT for its climate change reporting.

"To have our name and image (misused) as a politically motivated publicity stunt is wholly contrary to our values of independence and accuracy," the newspaper's statement said.

The eight-page spoof, dated Dec. 19, 2009, was meant to "show world leaders ... the future we all might have if they do right by the planet at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December," Greenpeace spokeswoman Elsa Lee said.

Greenpeace printed 50,000 copies of the spoof, of which 35,000 were distributed in Brussels where European Union leaders were meeting. About 15,000 copies were distributed in 16 European countries plus Canada, China, India, Mexico, the United States and Brazil, Greenpeace said.

Comments

[Squeezer55]

Greenpeace is irrelevant. I joined in 1975 while in university to save the whales, their first campaign. Once they found out how much money people were willing to give them, they focused their efforts on ways of publicly demonstrating to raise their image , hence raise more money. Today they're like other groups like PETA , superficial, funding no R&D on any issue, no educational programs. They do stunts simply to wring money out of naive,altruistic, people who have more money than sense. There's nothing they're going to tell that you haven't heard ten times before from ten other sources.

[S1m0n]

Spoofing a print edition of a newspaper is SO last millenium!

[larry278]

Since the NYT, owner of the IHT, is broke & staggering as it dies, the chances are slim, Senor Slim is getting 14% interest from the NYT, that either the NYT or IHT will take Greenpeace to court over a parody of the IHT. It takes money to proceed with a suit. The NYT is broke. If the NYT was looking for a suit to wear, the NYT would have to shop at Goodwill.

[LeeCalif]

Good for them !!

Just a joke.

[SharpDressedMan]

Isn't this a copyright infringement subject to legal consequences?

[larry278]

Perhaps, a judge or series of judges could determine that if & when the case goes to court. There could be a time consuming appeal process too.