Greenpeace's 'ScamWow!' BP dig

BP's attempts to clean up the Gulf — and its soiled image — have prompted Greenpeace to make a mocking "infomerical"

In real life, it's impossible to clean up an oil spill — but that doesn't mean you can't pretend. Or so says Greenpeace in a new video parodying BP's promises to "restore" the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico. Spoofing a well-known infomercial for ShamWow! ultra-absorbant towels, the Greenpeace video suggests that BP is using "ScamWow!" products to "magically" sanitize the company's toxic image, and create the impression that the damage from the spill can ever be fixed. This ad is hilarious, says Caroline Sloan in Bliss Tree. Unfortunately, it also "reminds us of the actual environmental trouble we’re all in." The "scary part," says Brendan DeMelle in the Huffington Post, "is that the ScamWow! spoof isn't too far off the actual claims made by BP." Watch the ScamWow! ad below:

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