advertising

Coen brothers shoot an ad busting the ‘clean coal’ myth

The Reality Coalition is at it again. This time, they recruited the Coen Brothers to shoot an ad debunking the “clean coal” myth: The Coens are also shooting a second ad for the campaign, due out soon.

Big Coal's new campaign: choose us, not jobs and health

It was not so long ago that the coal industry could just issue propaganda without reference to coal's problems. Coal was "reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean" and it powered green, useful things like Washington, D.C.'s Metro system.

So imagine my glee when I woke up this morning and pulled the latest Southern Company insert from my morning newspaper. Here it is:

I think the androgynous yuppie happily contemplating the radioactive turd is supposed to convince us that said turd is actually a piece of coal that has been magically "greened."

I was smiling, of course, not because this insert represented a new, revolting low in graphic arts, but because Southern Company now feels compelled to fight not so much for the ability to build new coal-fired power plants, but for survival.

FCC and FTC need to hold 'clean coal' ads accountable to reality

As viewers of PBS and the major network and cable channels know too well, the onslaught of "clean coal" advertisements over the past year has reached a tipping point. In the face of the actual news headlines, the relentless barrage of television daydreams about coal's zero carbon dioxide emissions and the coal industry's fanciful role in environmental protection and job security seem more like bad reruns from the era of "Father Knows Best" than any hope for a clean energy future.

"Clean" coal? How about a little truth in advertising? Perhaps it's time for the Federal Trade Commission or Federal Communications Commission to hold the coal industry's public relations campaign to acceptable standards.

Don't they watch the news?

In the last month alone, viewers have had to juggle the reality of news reports on toxic coal ash spills in Tennessee and Alabama, coal waste-polluted watersheds in West Virginia and Illinois, mining accidents and coal dust explosions in Kentucky and Wisconsin, mountaintop removal and devastated communities throughout Appalachia, tragic strip mining on Native lands in Arizona, and several state initiatives to halt the construction of carbon dioxide and mercury emission-spewing coal-fired plants. And the state of Montana, like the U.S. Air Force, just shot down proposals for the coal-to-liquid boondoggle.

The news ain't over.

Scientists find source of gregarious behavior (in grasshoppers)

This week's edition of Science has an interesting paper on the swarming behavior of desert locusts. It's initiated by high levels of serotonin. I'll wager E. O. Wilson is very excited about this.

From an informative article in the BBC News:

"Serotonin profoundly influences how we humans behave and interact," said co-author Dr Swidbert Ott, from Cambridge University.

"So to find that the same chemical is what causes a normally shy, antisocial insect to gang up in huge groups is amazing."

Indeed. Got me to wondering about other examples of swarming behavior. I'm thinking Super Bowl. Which got me to wondering about the Super Bowl ads mentioned by Kate Sheppard.

The Ecomagination ads made me smile. They made me feel good inside. Given the opportunity, I may find a way to thank GE for making me feel good. Drinkability made me laugh. I may subconsciously decide to buy a Bud Light the next time I'm at a bar just to rekindle that feeling.

Advertising Standards Authority in U.K. banned a Renewable Fuels Association ad

Last year, when oil prices were peaking, OPEC President Chakib Khelil told an Algerian newspaper that "the intrusion of bioethanol on the market" was responsible for 40 percent of the rise in oil prices -- an asinine, unsubstantiated remark that nobody believed.

The Renewable Fuels Association saw this as an opportunity to promote their own environmentally destructive product with equally asinine, unsubstantiated remarks in an open letter to OPEC. However, George Monbiot complained to the Advertising Standards Authority in the U.K., who subsequently banned the ad. He didn't like their use of the word "sustainable."

I'm not aware of an American equivalent of the ASA, but we sure could use one.

Reality Coalition releases new ad spoofing coal industry

The Reality Coalition has another installment of its campaign pointing out that “clean coal” doesn’t really exist. This one, “COALergy: Leave Climate Change to Us,” spoofs coal-industry advertising:

ACCE pulls down clean coal carolers from its site

Bye-bye, Miss American Pie. Drove my Chevy to the levee, But the levee was under a half mile of rubble from a mountaintop that had been decapitated … OK, I’m no Don McClean, but then neither is the ACCCE (American Coalition for Clean Coal Euphemisms?). We’re still two weeks from Christmas, but the coal industry […]

Curt Ellis responds to the ads promoting corn syrup …

I was really happy to see this article. The ads which cast doubt on corn syrup-related health problems are so bad that even Karl Rove must be shaking his head. (Besides, who takes a popsicle — let alone one popsicle for two people — on a picnic?)

Shell greenwashes with a full-page WaPo ad

Shell’s Mad Men win the 2008 award for the most unintentionally ironic greenwashing ad. On Monday (and again today), Shell ran a full-page ad in the Washington Post on carbon capture with this image: Yes, Shell is apparently trying to catch CO2 with a net! Let’s hope they have better luck than either the Bush […]