Corporate advertising, in the form of ads posted on websites, is one thing. But when corporate shills are allowed to set up and run a blog of their own on a website that is supposed to be about SCIENCE, not corporate advocancy, that just blows my mind!

See for yourself here!

http://scienceblogs.com/foodfrontiers/

http://scienceblogs.com/foodfrontiers/about.php

http://scienceblogs.com/foodfrontiers/2010/07/welcome_to_food_frontiers.php

I am absolutely opposed to this crap and I hope there is a massive protest against it by other bloggers at scienceblogs!

Oh, it’s already started:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/07/say_hello_topepsico_wtf.php

http://scienceblogs.com/superbug/2010/07/pepsi_messy.php

http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/07/a_pause_for_thought.php

http://scienceblogs.com/tfk/2010/07/on_corporate_content.php

http://scienceblogs.com/tfk/2010/07/more_on_pepsi.php

http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2010/07/a_pepsi-induced_hiatus.php

http://scienceblogs.com/whitecoatunderground/2010/07/rethinking_blog_networks_and_e.php

http://scienceblogs.com/classm/2010/07/beyond_the_pale.php

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2010/07/sucking_corporate_dick.php

http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2010/07/an_egoistic_perspective_on_the.php

http://scienceblogs.com/neuronculture/2010/07/a_food_blog_i_cant_digest.php

http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/07/so_long_and_thanks_for_all_the.php

http://scienceblogs.com/mikethemadbiologist/2010/07/programming_note_thanks_to_pep.php

http://scienceblogs.com/confessions/2010/07/a_teachable_moment.php

http://scienceblogs.com/casaubonsbook/2010/07/alliances_beginning_and_ending.php

http://scienceblogs.com/casaubonsbook/2010/07/blog_suspended.php

http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/07/if_i_say_something_bad_about_p.php

http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2010/07/seed_conflicts_of_interest_and.php

http://scienceblogs.com/culturedish/2010/07/culture_dish_doesnt_live_here.php

http://scienceblogs.com/neurotopia/2010/07/my_official_farewell.php

Finally, the people running scienceblogs made a statement recognizing how they had blundered, but still tried to justify the presence of the corporate blog itself:

http://scienceblogs.com/seed/2010/07/transparency_regarding_food_fr.php

Yesterday, ScienceBlogs launched Food Frontiers, a blog sponsored by PepsiCo. This isn’t the first time we’ve hosted sponsored blogs–recent ones included GE, Shell, and Invitrogen–but it is the first time we’ve received this level of criticism about it.

Frankly, we at ScienceBlogs did not do a good job of communicating what these sponsored blogs are for, give a proper explanation of what our relationship to Food Frontiers was going to be, or even properly explain what Food Frontiers is.

We have blogs from industry because we think it’s important that the story of how and why industry science gets done be part of the conversation at ScienceBlogs. It’s certainly the story of a great many of the world’s engineers, mathematicians, chemists, physicists, and biologists. These scientists necessarily have conflicts of interest, so as a matter of transparency, we’re fixing the way those conflicts are presented, in line with the best practices of scientific journals.

Bullcrap!

To the owners of scienceblogs, Seed Media Group, I say this: What a stupid thing you have done! You do NOT need corporate money that badly. You only undermine the credibility of your website and your own bloggers that have been here for years. What you need is INTEGRITY! Kill that Pepsi blog and don’t EVER do anything so underhanded again!

I AM SICK OF CORPORATIONS RULING THE WORLD!!!!!