Driving Highway 101 through Redwood Valley and Ukiah, it is impossible to miss the Dolly Parton billboards. A huge picture of Dolly Parton, with the sentence, “Find the Good in Everybody” and below that, outlined in red, the word “Kindness,” brought to you by the website PassItOn.com, The Foundation for a Better Life.
If ever a celebrity is scandal-free and loved by everyone on all sides of the political spectrum, it’s Dolly Parton, whose Dollywood Foundation gives away books to children, provides scholarships to keep teens from dropping out of high school, and other community minded programs. She is admirable, no doubt. But why is the Foundation for a Better Life putting up these billboards in our quaint, rural county?
PassItOn.com is funded by Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz’ Foundation for a Better Life. Its website says the billboards are public service announcements:
“Our goal is to select values we feel most individuals will find inspiring and relevant. These values reflect the input of a large and diverse group of people. The Foundation does not have any political or religious agenda, so that people from all backgrounds might feel uplifted by these messages of encouragement and hope. Our objective is simply to promote a wide spectrum of values by providing an uplifting message around each one.”
Dolly Parton is the kind of success story every billionaire loves. Born into extreme poverty, she became rich and famous through sheer grit, talent, drive, and hard work. She uses her great wealth to fund a nonprofit foundation, doing good by doing well. No need for wasteful government programs to become a success in life!
As billionaires go, Anschutz seems more in line with the quiet, homespun Warren Buffett, than with loud, controversial rich men who suck up media attention, like Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
Most news articles about Anschutz are close to ten years old. He keeps a low public profile. Anschutz inherited his family’s oil and gas business and then diversified into railroads, movie theaters, film production, newspapers, sports teams, and music production (he owns the Coachella Festival). Obviously, Anschutz is a smart and savvy businessman.
Dustin Patterson, the Production Coordinator for the Foundation for a Better Life and PassItOn campaigns, exemplified kindness and courtesy in a phone call to answer a few of our questions.
We asked if the Foundation for a Better Life would be targeting Mendocino County, or the North Coast of California, along Highway 101?
No. Patterson said, “The way it works, it’s all based on free media space. When a billboard owner has space they can’t sell, they contact our organization. The Foundation for a Better Life pays a small one-time posting fee as an incentive for [billboard owners] to put up a PSA.”
We wondered if the billboard campaign was an effort to calm public nerves in a contentious election year?
“No,” Patterson said, “these are not political.”
We asked Patterson how the Foundation went about selecting celebrities for the billboards.
Patterson explained, “Every two years, roughly, we come up with a new billboard campaign. Typically, someone in [the celebrities’] management circle will reach out.” The celebrities are not paid, they donate the media and imagery.
He went on to say the Foundation for a Better Life researches the issues that the celebrity is interested in, and tailors a campaign around that.
The large freeway billboards are made of vinyl and can be unwrapped from the billboard and stored for future use in case a paying advertiser wants to rent that space.
This year, there are close to 5,000 billboards across the US, according to Patterson.
The Foundation for a Better Life uses freelance creatives all over the country to create artwork for billboards, TV commercials, and other messages.
We have gathered the Foundation for a Better Life is a lean, efficient operation, with few employees. Anschutz has a wide circle of celebrity managers to draw from, as he owns entertainment and sports companies. The kind of people who craft Superbowl ads are at his disposal, people very skilled at emotional manipulation through advertising. The depth and breadth of Anshutz’ contacts in these worlds is impressive, as well as his efficient business model. It is easy to see how he rose to the top in his business dealings, and the celebrities in these campaigns trust him to convey their messages.
So, who cares if Philip Anshutz, kindly billionaire, is funding billboards, radio ads, bus station shelter ads, TV commercials, articles for newspapers, and posters for schools, and daily Instagram posts, with happy messages?
Well, it turns out, quite a few people.
Some musicians do not want their performances at Coachella to generate revenue for a billionaire who, despite protests to the contrary, seems to be aligned with conservative right-wing causes.
Anschutz has donated to political action committees that fund anti-LGBTQ+, anti-abortion, and anti-climate change groups. Paper Magazine’s January 3, 2018 article asks “How does Coachella’s problematic owner secure openly liberal artists?” But Anschutz is a study in contradictions, as openly gay Elton John is pictured on one of the Foundation for a Better Life ’s billboards.
Mark Hogan’s January 5, 2017 article in Pitchfork, quotes Coachella artist Ted Leo, who “recognized Anschutz’s name from investigative reporter Jane Mayer’s 2016 book Dark Money, which recounts how anti-government oil billionaires the Koch brothers and other like-minded peers, including Anschutz, have used their enormous wealth to back far-right causes. Leo directed followers to information about Anschutz’s ‘history of shadowy money in conservative causes.’”
The Foundation for a Better Life also provides free feel-good articles for newspapers. The newspaper business has drastically declined over the past 20 years, mainly due to the loss of advertising revenue to the Internet. There is no need for a local business to buy an ad in the newspaper when they can set up a website that people will find using Google. Craigslist and other internet sites have replaced most printed newspaper classified ads. Some of the newspapers that are still left are being purchased by groups of extremely wealthy people, who now control the media. The news is broadcast through a narrow funnel, with a narrow point of view. Anschutz owns several newspapers across the country. Through the Foundation for a Better Life, feel-good stories that he approves of are distributed to any paper that wants them, for free, as a “public service.”
The Foundation for a Better Life distributes free materials to schools, inspirational messages about being the best that you can be or overcoming adversity. Patterson confirmed in a follow-up email that only a handful of schools and newspapers in Northern California have requested materials from the Foundation for a Better Life.
The Foundation for a Better Life is a supporter of the ArtCenter College of Design, an expensive art school in Southern California, with an emphasis on advertising, entertainment, and industrial design. In other words, art that serves the corporations.
The Foundation for a Better Life sponsored a campaign for students of ArtCenter to submit short videos with positive PSAs. Successful graduates go on to work in advertising, as industrial designers for corporations like Apple, and at entertainment companies such as Disney. The trustees of the school are heavy hitters in the advertising and entertainment world. For example, Trustee Bill Gross is a Silicon Valley legend. ArtCenter’s website says, “Among the transformative changes that Bill has wrought is the invention of the business model that powers most of the monetization of the internet. Bill invented the ‘paid click’, or CPC (cost-per-click) model . . . .” Gross saw the money-making possibility of the internet long before most people. Art, meet commerce. The Foundation for a Better Life has a hand in training the next generation of corporate artists and designers.
Here’s where it gets a bit complicated to understand. But it’s worth thinking about, if you want a true understanding of how this country is run, and the enormous influence big money has on politics. In 2006 Anschutz petitioned the Bush White House to appoint Colorado attorney Neil Gorsuch to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. This led to Gorsuch’s eventual appointment to the Supreme Court. Gorsuch is on record saying that he is in favor of ending what is known as the “Chevron Defense,” which would reduce power of federal agencies to regulate, and instead allow judges to interpret regulations. For an explanation of this complicated legal doctrine, click on this definition from Cornell Law School.
The bottom line is that ending the Chevron Defense would be a gift to corporations in the form of less oversight from federal regulators and a blow to environmental and social justice groups.
It is widely expected that the fate of the Chevron Defense will soon be decided in the pending Supreme Court Case Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. There have been many calls for Gorsuch to recuse himself from the case, because if the Supreme Court decides to remove the Chevron Defense, it would be a wonderful gift to those in the oil and gas business, such as Gorsuch’s friend Anschutz. Gorsuch has not recused himself.
Meanwhile Anschutz is letting his feel-good billboards distract the public from real issues. Stephen Prager’s December 2023 article in Current Affairs, “The Sinister Politics of Pass it on Billboards” is critical of the Foundation for a Better Life’s billboard campaign, arguing that the messages urge people to be generous and kind, without revealing Anschutz’ extensive political lobbying.
Democratic billionaires influence our government, too, through their foundations. They use their tax-free money to fund causes they feel are just and worthy. When you are this high up in the stratosphere, political parties are meaningless. Both parties are very eager to have the support of billionaires. In a democracy, the people’s elected representatives are supposed to decide on public projects and policies, funded through tax dollars. Instead, the non-profit foundations run by billionaires have an outsize influence on our government.
The next time you see an inspirational message, such as a Dolly Parton billboard, take the time to figure out where it is coming from. You may be surprised.
I have no problem with it. I’ll take a pair of happy tits over billboards with cannabis all over it.
Hardy Fucking Harr Harr, R M S!
Conspiracy much? I love the billboard.
I believe you.
And I believe we should fight against ads, celebrity, and even celebrity politics on all sides. We are all being played like a fiddle.
From products to fetishes, video games and GRWM shorts we are having our own ideas and aliances blocked. Love your neighbor. And yourself. Look away.
Yes. I don’t have Internet/TV/cell phone reception for days at a time and I gotta say besides wanting to maybe call family or friends without a lot of effort, I don’t miss or want them back. I don’t want for material stuff or get worked up over stuff I can’t do anything about on my own, I mean I do a little bit but not like before. Now I get worked up over how people act towards each other in comment sections but only as frequently as I get online. We absolutely have problems to worry about, but no billionaire, government or anything else is gonna come help us. For real the only people who will, will be our neighbors.
Dark money: a guy that may slightly disagree with you spends money and time on people and services that help people, Even makes them feel good.
Monica is an idiot.
You’re an idiot.
It’s no secret that corporate money and wealthy billionaires are heavily involved in our so-called democracy. An uncomfortable fact of life in these troubled times. But the author picked a rather benign example to highlight in this piece. Their own bias is on full display here. Someone like George Soros or Bill gates, the left-leaning drivers of so much current techno-wokeness all over the planet, might have been a better target.
This is not journalism but paranoia for paranoid people.
I vote Dolly Parton billboards over marijuana billboards any day. As long as this man isn’t using known pedos on his billboards and is using the billboards for passing on an encouraging message I vote leave it alone. So what if he’s a conservative and a billionaire. At least he’s encouraging people and not rioting.
Let’s see here a billionaire that tries to enrich lives however has political views that differ from the authors? And that makes him evil? This is cancel culture no matter how you slice it.
News flash: Left wing crank finds fault with “kindness.” This must be Mendocino County.
Michael,
They are everywhere.
People I know in Sonoma county and some in Arizona are the same way.
It’s sad because a lot of people will make an opinion just based on the title of this article. It sounds like you don’t agree with Philips political views. Period. That’s all that is. The internet and its cancel culture is only hurting us as a whole.
Dolly Parton preaches about being a nice person but she got Unknown Hinson fired from his role on the show Squidbillies because he said mean things about her on the internet (things that were true)
Dolly Parton is not as nice as she pretends as she is.
Unknown Hinson the replaced with TRACY MORGAN!!? I like Tracy Morgan and all, but c’mon!! They destroyed that show. Would have been better being cancelled completely. Go woke, go broke!
My point here is that big corporate money has too much influence in politics. Let’s use PG&E and California, a state ruled by liberal Democrats, as an example. PG&E recently raised their rates. Did the liberal Democratic state Public Utilities Commission stop them? No, because PG&E contributes to political campaigns of California Democrats, or PACs that fund them. Then PG&E runs TV ads showing their hardworking employees out in the field fixing lines, to distract us.
Your point could have been made in one or two paragraphs and is already well known. There is plenty of ‘big money doners’ influencing politics in more negative ways, George Soros, ‘Big Tech’, public employee unions, etc. This article is just a bad look for you and Mendofever.
This is the catch-22 of individual agency. Yes, where you end up in life is 90% out of your control, but if you don’t trick yourself into thinking you can do something about it, you lose that last 10%. You have to believe things that are impossible to even have a chance.
My gut says it’s a fine ad and one would have to dig to find fault so let’s just take it as it is. Then my brain kicks in and reminds me that “Carbon Footprint” is a word invented by an AD company. Who hired this company? British Petroleum. We see “Carbon Footprint” as a buzz word for environmentalist, yet BP paid big bucks to achieve an objective. What was that objective? I feel there may be highly intelligent people with lots of money who are manipulating the social narrative, and we should ask these questions.
I noticed right away the responsibility was on the person who should “find the good in everybody” rather than the individual who might be responsible to “show your good to everybody.”
Like any billboard message would do anything. Hell keep it just because she is a inspiration to all.
But should a liberal be the one funding the billboards and the story would be radically different. Smh.
If it was a liberal there would be a pic of Biden sniffing a kids head, every single Republicans head would absolutely explode except somehow they’re mouths would not stop talking and we’d never hear the end of it. While the rest of us normal folks clean up pieces of head and skull, the Democrats would sniff their own farts in delight at the fine distraction) division they made and continue to pass bs laws to line their pockets and criminized and fine people into submission and work on newer better fear tactics to keep the masses in submission, GOD BLESS
No adds some one should burn them signs down
I am impressed with the curiosity, research, willingness to ask questions, and writing ability shown here. Independent journalism may save us… I hope. Keep up the good work.
To be obnoxiously pedantic, it’s called Chevron deference, and it’s a doctrine that says that courts have to defer to administrative agencies’ interpretations of the laws they enforce.
The slightly longer version is that these agencies create rules based on these statutes (i.e. legislative function). They hire agents to enforce these rules (i.e. executive function). And they hire their own administrative law judges to listen to the enforcement cases they bring and interpret the rules (i.e. judicial function).
Then, if the agency’s decision is appealed to a real court, the real judge is required to give great deference to the ALJ’s findings and interpretations of law.
The reasons that this doctrine is controversial are: (1) it fundamentally violates our traditional belief in the separation of legislative, executive, and judicial functions; and (2) it deprives our actual courts of much of their ability to act as a check on administrative agencies.
Given that checks and balances and the separation of powers are generally considered safeguards against tyranny, maybe it’s okay to just give Dolly her due.
Josh, thank you for your thoughtful reply, much appreciated.
Your encyclopedic knowledge of the Chevron deference is amazing and spot on. And it is scary that courts must give deference to regulating agencies on issues of fact.
The US Supreme Court is set to rule on two cases, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless Inc. v. Commerce Department. Rulings in those cases can undo the Chevron deference and restore separation of powers. Ruling expected in or by June.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/04/15/sayonara-chevron/
The message here is more important than where, or who, it came from. The message is kindness…the disconnect would occur should Trump fund a kindness billboard as it run counter to everything he says and does.
Great billboard. Does a heart good to see kindness being promoted. Never thought it would be needed.
We need more kindness in America. Kindness brings people together.
This opinion piece seems to be looking for something to criticize and making this billboard out to be dark and political by being kind to one another. Not everything involves politics and animosity.
We have a decaying American society with a disintegration of civility, morality and respect across the country. It is everywhere from in the streets to social media. Just maybe, this billionaire wants to help us get back to America where countrymen, whether we are born here or naturalized, respect one another, are kind and help each other. People may want to read the Declaration of Independence again and what the people founding this country went through to make the United States a country of, for and by the People. Truly remarkable, the Declaration of Independence was written by a man who was only 33 years old. Many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were in their thirties, some in their twenties and some in their forties or older (the average age was 44 years old). Over a dozen signers were younger than 35 years old. Not the old white men people think they were. Rather amazing.
I love America, warts and all. Keeping our real history intact is how we learn to do better. We need leaders who love America, warts and all, too. The current president does not love America or many Americans and neither does Newsom. They disparage Americans who don’t agree with their policies and they denigrate the country they serve or want to serve as President. How can you lead a country you don’t love and the people you don’t love? You can’t. You can sell us out. Shameful.
Oh my. A wealthy conservative guy who uses his money to further causes he likes! Horrors! It’s not like any leftist wealthy guys do that!
Wow! What a long-winded attempt to trash a beloved & charitable celebrity.
This author not only brings disrespect to herself, she undermines the good work of Progressive causes with her ‘wild goose chase’ effort to taint Dolly’s reputation.
Mendo Fever, is it such a slow news week that you’ll print any drivel? C’mon! Do better!
You got that right DBH!
Miss Dolly is an American treasure period!
And a citizen of the world.