Media Absent on Prom and Politics

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Don’t you dare go buy that $300 department store satin dress for your senior prom; a Captain Planet costume is more appropriate. Some high school students are entering an online video contest called Project Green Prom in which they promise to create a “zero waste event” for their high school prom.

For the next 25 days, high school students have the opportunity to send in three minute videos describing their ideas to create a more environmentally-friendly prom to the Web site teensturninggreen.com. The contestants can win eco-prom dresses from top designers, “sustainable” beauty products, and the grand prize winner gets a trip to New York City for a full “Green Prom Makeover.”

But the media is not reporting this push to get high school students to incorporate political pressure into what is already a night full of pressure to get the right date, get the right dress, etc. The only places this contest appears are on left-wing, “green” sites like greendaily.com, www.treehugger.com, and mothernaturenetwork.com.

The contest encourages teens to talk about their environmentally-conscious ideas such as using organic or eco-friendly make-up. Let’s hope the media picks up on this “green prom” story and interviews the students who don’t wish to reuse their cloth napkins to wipe their sweaty foreheads from dancing the night away in their burlap dresses and hemp sandals.