"Eco-sexy" cheerleaders will save the planet
The Eagles Cheerleaders were already on the "eco-sexy" tip with last year's edition. But this year they're upping the ante, focusing more strongly on global warming.
If you're not familiar with the terms "eco-sexy" and "biolicous" you obviously didn't have a chance to attend the Eagles Cheerleaders' unveiling of their latest calendar. Well, neither did I, but with the exhaustive coverage in the Daily News, I almost feel like I was there. In addition to our story from St. John Barned-Smith there's a Steve Falk slideshow with 29 photos chronicling every aspect of the Green (in more ways than one) stage show.
While some may assume the Eagles are going all environmental on us in an attempt to replicate the success of the 2008 Phillies - whose embrace of sustainability, Earth to Philly showed beyond a shadow of a doubt, was responsible for their World Series championship - the Eagles Cheerleaders were already on the "eco-sexy" tip with last year's edition. But this year they're upping the ante, focusing more strongly on global warming.
The entire cheerleading squad showed off bikinis made of recycled soda bottles and organic cotton by designers Aaron Chang and San Natura Organics.
Jewelry was also made from recycled, repurposed or "up-cycled" materials like animal shells, dried flowers and repurposed silver, guitar picks, melted forks and knives, feathers, and even nuts from Latin and South America. The calendar is printed on recycled paper.
Now, some might grouse that some kind of digital or virtual calendar would ultimately be more legitimately sustainable, requiring no paper at all. But that would forgo the opportunity to have a group of people that a great many Philadelphians pay a lot of attention to sounding the alarm about climate change. And if there's one thing the Daily News has learned in packaging hard-hitting stories - like our reporting of the plea deal Vince Fumo rejected, only to wind up getting an even lighter sentence - it's that sex sells. That's why longtime-Senator-turned-criminal Fumo is on our cover playing second fiddle to, well, a woman's butt.
It could work. If any Eagles fans are inspired to moderate their lifestyle after seeing this event or buying this calendar, that's something to cheer about.
In other local sports team news, the Sixers and Flyers have yet to make an equivalent eco-friendly push, whether in terms of big PR events or real-world changes such as the menu options available to fans. As it happens, the Daily News did just today trumpet the fact that the "Flyers are going 'Green' for New Year's Day," but alas, not quite in the same sense, nor with the same "eco-sexy" strategy.