The trick that tells the truth

Unmasking corporate counterfeit

Featured in

  • Published 20230207
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-80-1
  • Extent: 264pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

TWO LITTLE GIRLS, maybe four or five years old, are hurtling through the knee-high grass, the blades of which appear more chartreuse than verdant under the low sun’s bright light. Each child is wearing a striped singlet and long pants. There are no buildings in sight, just a lush, vacant meadow spreading in every direction, backed by dense trees casting a shadow on the near horizon. The sunbeams stream behind the speeding figures, shining through the translucent sprays of their shoulder-length hair. The lively grin of the follower and the concentration of the leader suggest that perhaps the chase is on – but there could be a thousand motives behind why they run, or none at all. The scene conjures Wordsworth: Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive. 

Or so this piece of corporate marketing intends us to feel. A female voice is heard over the footage, intoning words of warm reassurance: ‘We are moving from using high to lower emissions generation technology. Our commitment to gradually close our coal-fired power stations means we are making way for new low-carbon generation.’

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

More from author

Our once and future home

EssayIT’S A HOT Australian twilight, some years ago now, and I’m among a couple of hundred people who have gathered in the forgettable, sanitised...

More from this edition

From Russia with love

Non-fictionThe 'socialisation of women' narrative arose from journalistic innovations associated with the First World War. In response to an unprecedented demand for up-to-date news, the Australian press had embarked on rapid technological change. Editors installed steam- and rotary-powered printing machines, established distribution fleets of automobiles and trucks, and hooked up their newsrooms to telephone lines.

Outside, Mona Lisa

Non-fictionWhere bushwalking is concerned, Tasmanian maps are not an authentic picture of the landscape. They’re fine if you want to stick to well-known trails, but if the track has been assigned a T4 rating it won’t be on the map. Sometimes that’s because the route is so rough it would be misleading to mark it as a track, but sometimes it’s that for a range of management and environmental purposes, the PWS just doesn’t want many walkers going there.

The future is hackable

Non-fictionDeepfakes point to a future that is simultaneously euphoric and apocalyptic: philosophers have positioned them as ‘an epistemic threat to democracy’, journalists have called them ‘the place where truth goes to die’, futurists have portrayed them as the digital harbinger of a mass ‘reality apathy’ in which even video will be a lie.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.