How Obama Is Using 'The Lorax' To Indoctrinate Your Kids. Or Not.

Lorax

If you—or your innocent children—have seen Universal Studios' ads for The Lorax, you'll know that they're nothing but propaganda for the environmental movement.

Unless, of course, you've seen Mazda's Lorax tie-in campaign, which exploits The Lorax to sell gas guzzling SUVs, the least Truffula tree-friendly vehicle you could possibly buy.

That's the quality of the debate surrounding The Lorax after Fox Business Network presenter Lou Dobbs blasted The Lorax for brainwashing America's vulnerable youth. The studio—and President Obama!—wants to “indoctrinate our children.” Dobbs said:

“The President’s liberal friends in Hollywood [are] targeting a younger demographic using animated movies to sell their agenda to children,”

He continued:

“Where have we heard this before?” Dobbs asked while playing short clips from the movie, citing Occupy Wall Street as pitting the “makers against the takers” as a graphic on the screen reads “Lorax movie pushes anti-industry message.”

The movie is indeed political. Author Dr. Seuss was a liberal, and the original plot of the The Lorax revolves around an orange, mustachioed creature's attempts to prevent his neighbors from cutting down every last Truffula tree in the forest. He fails, the forest is decimated, and everyone is forced to leave.

Universal decided to increase the ad campaign's environmental message after receiving a 57,000-signature petition from Ted Well's fourth-grade class in Brookline, Mass.

That petition spurred a counter-protest to "Stop forcing the Lorax to sell dangerous, polluting cars."

Stephen Colbert, naturally, hates "the little orange tree-hugger."

Here's the movie's trailer, followed by Mazda's spot: