Thousands of people have signed a petition asking corporate sponsors to stop funding a group of online filmmakers from B.C. who wandered through a U.S. natural wonder to take photos.
The online petition was posted on change.org by users going by the name "Montana Mint," in response to the footage taken in a sensitive ecosystem in Yellowstone National Park.
Last week, four men posted pictures online of themselves next to Grand Prismatic Spring.
The brightly coloured hot spring is a popular tourist destination, though visitors to the park are prohibited from approaching the area because of its sensitivity. Instead, visitors are encouraged to hike to a higher viewpoint to see the tie-dyed-looking natural wonder, or to take photos from a distance on the boardwalk.
A video of the foursome taking photos off the boardwalk went viral, and they were identified as a group of Vancouver men who travel the world making videos. Under the name "High On Life SundayFundayz," the men issued an apology for their actions and said they would donate up to $5,000 to the park. The hot spring ecosystem is currently being assessed for damage, and rangers say they have been unable to contact or locate the crew.
Three of the four men have been named in a criminal complaint filed by park rangers, but the petition's creators also believe the "High On Life" group should lose their corporate sponsors.
"The easiest way to stop them from doing something like this again is to pull their corporate dollars," the petition reads.
The petition links to an archived page showing the group's corporate sponsors, which has since been removed from their website. On the page, the group lists partnerships with Contiki, Red Bull, Bud Light, Mott's, Cocos Pure, The Pink Palace, Blueprint and Skydive the City.
The petition is addressed to Bud Light, Red Bull, Cocos Pure and Blueprint, and had nearly 20,000 signatures as of Friday afternoon. Dozens of the signatures and comments from supporters come from residents of the states the park is spread across: Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, though some messages of support were written by Canadians across the country.
Organizers of the petition posted that they had heard back from Red Bull, Cocos Pure and Blueprint, who said that they'd worked with the group in the past but were not affiliated with the specific trip.
"Some of these partners expressed outrage at the group's behaviour," an update on the petition said. The petition's creators wrote that they had not heard back from Bud Light.
