to be caused by the chemicals (4-methylphenol and 4-ethylphenol) used in the process of manufacturing the boxes from recycled materials. These chemicals are not harmful to humans, and Amazon has never publicly responded to the issue. In popular culture Books One of the first books critical of Amazon was a Canadian book of essays titled Against Amazon: Seven Arguments; the little book was originally hand-bound and printed in a limited run by author Jorge Carrión, before being picked up by indie Canadian publisher Biblioasis, where it went viral and began appearing in university bookstores. Another such book was How to Resist Amazon and Why by Danny Caine, which was published by Raven Books and widely distributed throughout North America. The book referred to Amazon as "Scamazon" (a portmanteau of "Amazon" and "scam") and featured information about shopping locally and avoiding buying items from Amazon. Film and television In 2022, the animated adult sitcom Family Guy featured a Season 21 episode titled "Bend or Blockbuster", in which the Griffin Family is attacked by the last two remaining employees of Blockbuster and then saved by a group of Amazon drones. When Peter Griffin remarks that Amazon isn't such a bad company after all, the drone carrying him replies, "Amazon agrees - workers shouldn't unionize!", to which Peter is disturbed and argues that this isn't what he said at all. Lois Griffin is annoyed to learn that the family's Amazon Alexa was spying on them to find their location, and had tracked their recent purchases. The Amazon drones then distract the family from the subject matter by playing cheerful Christmas music. Advertising In 2011, the Virginia-based Alliance for Main Street Fairness ran a variety of television ads themed around an anti-Amazon ideology, with the encouragement of customers to shop responsibly. This was in part due to a bill at the time being proposed that would have forced Amazon to be more diligent in paying taxes. In 2020, Canadian resident Ali Haberstroh became frustrated with the number of brick-and-mortar business closures in the country and created an advertising website called Not Amazon, which promotes businesses and corporations not affiliated with Amazon in any way. The Guardian published a news article about the website in 2020, during which Not Amazon had already amassed 350,000 visitors. Amazon itself did not comment on the article. Explanatory notes See also Criticism of Walmart The StoryGraph References Further reading