If this title sets your heart all aflutter for Sting in his glory days, then you’re entirely too old for your own good. If, however, it brought to mind the funky, relatively new advertising campaign from Crispin Porter geared at educating the masses about clean(er) coal, then you ARE the young, hip cool thang I knew you to be.
Flash banner ads along with video banners have been popping up on all of the environmental blogs and sites. The banners bring to mind that gum commercial in which the Australian woman dressed as a 60’s go-go dancer moves about freshening people up that find themselves in dirty (meaning grimy) situations. Click through to the flash site, and you’ll see a lovely little yellow canary flitting across a solid black background. The canary runs into “reality” in the form of a harsh statistic, and it dramatically crashes to the ground where its expires - complete with little x’s over the eyes. I found the replay function completely addictive. The group behind the campaign calls itself the “Reality Coalition” and consists of many leading environmental advocacy groups, including Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, League of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club.
I haven’t had a chance to draft a 101 post on clean(er) coal, yet, but in a nutshell, it refers to a process by which coal mines can be made and/or retrofitted to spew less noxious gases into the air. The controversy is, of course, that there really is no such thing as “clean” coal, just “clean-ER” coal. And whilst the process may help with some global warming issues, there are still a myriad of horrible environmental impacts associated with coal mining outside of increased global warming.
Proponents of clean-er coal argue that the US needs to factor coal into our national energy portfolio as we have loads of the raw material (again, noticeably in the most beautiful, wildlife-laden areas), and it’s a cheap way to supply folks with the watts they need. I suspect that unless the alternative energy solutions ramp up and cost down quickly, clean-er coal may still be on our horizon for the near term.
The agency has released three spots so far: “Reality,” “Smudge,” and “Clean Coal Clean.” The latest spot was directed by the Coen brothers, no less. I love it, so I’ve put it here for you to enjoy!
14/03/2009 at 10:33 am Permalink
you’re right this is fun, i don’t like birds so i can kill that canary again and again, and without burning my own coal (which i understand is bad)…