Via YouTube/Screen capture
Meet Mr. Coal. He’s the voice behind these videos. The voice of coal barons who want you to believe that coal is the way to go. They’re the creation of the Sierra Club and a small ad agency called Mekanism. If you’ve already read about recent mechanisms proposed for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from sources like coal plants (or not), look and listen.
Scrape-y Scrape-y! No More Lake-y!
The videos feature TV icons from the 1980s like Bob Ross, from “The Joy of Painting” TV show. The voice-over is from Mr. Coal, who reminds this writer of comedian Joe Piscopo, during the same era.
Sierra Club leaders want to see the videos go viral, to spread the word about “the dangerous and deadly effects of coal.” The two vids here already have 100,000+ views.
The aim is a coal version of the tobacco Truth campaign: Coal is bad for adults and kids, just like tobacco, no matter how many filters you put on it.
The videos are part of the Beyond Coal campaign, which has been ongoing since 2010 and the Sierra Club says has helped retire 106 of the nation’s more than 500 coal-fired power plants. The object is to close down aging, belching plants and replace them with clean sources of juice like wind and solar power.
Mr. Coal has a Facebook page, by the way, where the saying is “That’s So Coal.” What other 1980s icons would fit with this campaign?
If there was a coal settlement, like the tobacco settlement, what would the payout be?