Heal the Bay President Calls Out Simon Cowell's Rubbish Verizon Spot

Hold on to your man boobs, Simon Cowell. Judgment is now glowering upon you and your Verizon "X-Factor" app promo. In the TV spot, Cowell tosses cell phones from the balcony of a Malibu beachfront home, deeming them "rubbish," "junk," "useless," "embarrassing," "pointless" and "whatever" - using the beach as his personal garbage can. Mark Gold, president of Santa Monica's environmental nonprofit Heal the Bay doesn't see the commercial as "whatever."

Gold blogged in opposition to the message Cowell and Verizon are sending to viewers, that disposing of toxic products on our beaches is acceptable. Cell phones contain toxic heavy metals like arsenic, antimony, beryllium, cadmium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc, writes Gold, and can also contain brominated flame retardants and phthalates. Enjoy that rubbish, beachgoers and marine life!

"If it doesn't work, what's the point?" Cowell asks after his trash spree. A Verizon phone, one that Cowell can "get behind," is "the complete opposite of rubbish" and is not discarded over his shoulder. He advises a family on the beach who has stumbled upon the debris that they "don't want that rubbish." Yet he refrains from cleaning up his mess in the video.

Gold notes that "the Brits are always giving us trash" and asks, "Wasn't British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon oil spill bad enough?" Ouch.