clean coal ad makes coal look shady
Posted on | January 15, 2009 |
peabody energy, the world’s largest coal company, just launched an ad campaign advocating ‘clean coal‘. although some people argue that the term ‘clean coal’ is an oxymoron and marketing scheme because there is no way that coal can be clean, others insist that the group of technologies that lie under the clean coal umbrella are a desirable way to reduce harmful byproducts associated with burning coal.
regardless of all that, LOOK AT THIS AD! what is going on here?!
 |
while i certainly won’t purport to know whether or not clean coal is a complete sham as some environmentalists say it is, i can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that this ad is ridiculous. i mean, was the goal to portray yourselves as the marketing scammers that everyone is saying that you are? personifying the lump of coal is, possibly, the most out of touch with humanity strategy i have ever seen. was the focus group that tested this ad stonehenge? while thisisreality.org, where i first saw this ad, compares peabody’s coal lump person/dude/lump to joe camel, noting the propaganda behind both characters, at least joe camel was actually cool! he had a motorcycle, leather jacket and look here, he’s even wearing a tux. was he also riding a horse one time. wait, i don’t think camels ride horses, so scratch that.
just putting sunglasses on something does NOT make it cool. it just makes you look more suspicious!
wow. that really got me heated. am i alone here? does anyone else think that this is ridonkulous?
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Tags: ad > camel > clean > clean coal > coal > company > full > joe > marketing > page > peabody > thisisreality
Comments
4 Responses to “clean coal ad makes coal look shady”
Leave a Reply
why is this a site?
swyyne has always been an experiment for me. with all of the other super eco sites out there, i've been feeling like i want to contribute something just a bit different. so for now, here are my random musings.
look for stuff
feed yourself
January 17th, 2009 @ 9:18 pm
Very cool website and even better article on how every major polluting coal company is going to dress up their pollution as ”clean and cool””………pass me the BARF BAG cause I am going to HURL!!!!
I passionately HATE Coal and pollution and nothing irritates me like coal companies trying to pump their product as cool and clean!
Wind Baby Wind……..its a WIND WIND Situation!
January 19th, 2009 @ 3:03 pm
Thanks for that post, I’m glad people are questioning these ludicrous million dollar ad campaigns.
The amount of propaganda purportedly supporting “clean energy” in the DC metro area is absolutely ridiculous. Take Chevron’s “human energy” campaign - they have ads all over the metro with pictures of random people and notes like “I will unplug stuff more” and “I will at least consider a hybrid.” Excuse me? Sorry but it seems more than a little contradictory to promote efficiency while simultaneously pushing for more drilling. Their platform is, “At Chevron, we recognize the world needs all the energy we can develop, in every potential form.” Sounds diplomatic but totally ignores the reality of climate change. Sadly King Coal and Big Oil will never see the need to draw the line, and it seems it’s our job to call them out.
January 19th, 2009 @ 5:26 pm
[...] is amazing that Peabody Coal has chosen to do this. Right on the tail of Clean Coal Carolers, Peabody is throwing sun glasses on ever-so cool clean [...]
January 19th, 2009 @ 10:01 pm
What they mean by clean coal is carbon capture an sequestration or CCS, pumping CO2 deep into the earth. One problem is that it doesn’t address the other polutants from coal like arsenic, mercury, radionuclides, etc. And it isn’t really a proven technology, except in theory. It needs the right geology to work and doing it on a global scale, which is what it will take, would be on a scale like we now pump oil out of the ground. Not as simple or easy as it sounds. And none of that addresses the destruction from mining, like blowing the tops off hundreds of mountains in Appalachia, nor the holding ponds like the one that burst in Tennessee.
I suppose they need to clean up their image after the billion gallon coal sludge spill on Christmass eve in Tennessee. That followed a 300 million gallon spill in Kentucky in 2000.
For comparison, the Exxon Valdez oil spill was 11 million gallons. The spill in 2000 extended 75 miles to the Ohio River, and the company responsible, Massey Energy, got off with a $55,000 fine. Massive campaign donations to the Bush presidency campaign that virtually won W Virginia for Republicans in an upset victory, didn’t hurt.
There are 1300 of these holding ponds in the U.S., none of which are sealed ponds and many of which leak into watersheds.
The head of Massey Energy, Blankenship, is known for calling his critics athiests, communists and greeniacs, and says those who criticize Massey are enemies like Osama Bin Laden.