A wealthy British parliamentarian and entrepreneur is funding an "unprecedented" TV campaign to try to dissuade six small Caribbean nations from voting with Japan at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission that starts Monday.
Michael Ashcroft has devised a $500,000 ad campaign — "Tell Japan We'll Keep The Ban" — which is currently being screened in some of the six island nations he is targeting: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The House of Lords member, who has considerable business interests in the Caribbean, argues Tokyo has "bribed" these smaller nations with multimillion dollar aid packages so they will vote in favor of lifting the ban on commercial whaling.
The 30-second ad shows a mother and her young daughter walking along a Caribbean beach when the girl suddenly screams as the water turns red, signifying the blood from a whale kill. It shows a whale being caught and asks viewers to protest their government's support for Japan. "Tell your government, we won't do their (Japan's) dirty work," the ad implores.