The Coen Brothers talk dirty
What do you do with yourself when you're between movies and you're tired of dusting that crummy old Oscar statuette in the guest bedroom? If you're the Coen Brothers, you direct a new commercial spot mocking the coal industry for selling itself as a clean-energy alternative when burning coal is actually the dirtiest way to produce electricity. Produced by The Reality Campaign, a consortium of environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, the new ad plays like an outtake from one of the Coens' broadest comedies.
It features a squeaky-clean pitchman -- imagine a brunette version of Brad Pitt from "Burn After Reading" -- who's promoting a "Clean Coal Clean"-scented air freshener that actually spews puffs of black fumes all over the house. As he cheerfully puts it, how can you not embrace "the coal industry--the most trusted name in coal." It's not laugh-out-loud funny, but it gets the message across. But see for yourself here:
Truth will out. Mountain-top removal, huge piles of slag, polluted watersheds, dead miners, a long and brutal history of union-busting, the consequences of a failure to pursue renewable alternatives and a wasteful corporate culture reinforced by slick advertising to convince people that they "need" to consume stupid stuff: Yeah, that sounds like a picture the Coen brothers could make.
Stephen Thomas
Whittier, California
Posted by: St Ephen | February 27, 2009 at 07:59 AM