Boingboing.com reports today on what looks like an interesting movie about the MPAA movie ratings and how they're generated.  (http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/16/this_film_is_not_rat.html)  Naturally, the best way to convey a message of hypocrisy in pop culture and corporate exploitation is by having a naked woman's backside on the poster.

Also on Boingboing, the controversy rages over whether an elephant is pink, red-and-gold flocked, or au natural. 
(http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/16/people_pretty_pissed.html)  Actually, the main controversy is over whether it's acceptable for grafitti artist Banksy to have painted the elephant at all, or put her in his downtown LA warehouse show. 

It's not the first time there's been a fuss over Banksy using decorated animals in his shows - in one of Banksy's exhibits in 2003, an animal rights activist attached herself by the neck with a bike lock to the pen where a couple of spray-painted cows were being held.  (http://www.banksy.co.uk/cuttings/hackney-gazette.html)

Strangely, there's somewhat less objection to the plight of the cockroaches the same show had in a clear plastic case, crawling over the modified versions Paris Hilton's CDs.  (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5310416.stm) 

Maybe it's because Banksy is famous enough these days that people have started to regard him as somehow mainstream, but I also haven't noticed a lot of people taking note in this debate of the fact that the man is, in fact, a graffiti artist who's wanted in several countries.  It's not as though he's been funded by the NEA.  (Quick, name me an artist who is.) 



Which isn't to say that he shouldn't still be ethical in his treatment of animals, but people getting worked up over a weekend-long exhibit done with the approval of all relevent animal protection agencies in a country which allows quite an extensive list of animal testing procedures - not to mention the conditions on cattle farms, etc etc etc and I'm sure you've all read "Fast Food Nation" or would claim to have read it at a cocktail party - is a fairly good example of the kind of "it's only an important issue if it's new and shiny" thinking and reporting Banksy's targeting.