Blog #3: The Value of Good Advertising

          In today's conflicted world full of passionate NGO's and money hungry corporations it is all about the 'spin'. If a company like R&R Partners specializes in coal mining and is responsible for a commodity that some associate with "unsafe mines, mountaintop removal, acid rain, black lung, lung cancer, asthma, mercury
contamination, and, of course, global warming," (Conniff, 1) it is likely that they will have to spend quite a lot on a good slogan so they do not come off as the bad guys. There is one word that most people do not think of when they picture coal, however this one word has come in handy for R&R and that word is 'clean.' In the coal industry it is suggested that coal companies spend upwards of $60 million a year to promote the idea that coal is clean. (Conniff, 1) Companies like R&R argue that they can make coal clean by capturing CO2 emissions (which coal produces mass amounts of) and other pollutants before combustion. The problem with this is simple, not only would this require more money than most companies are willing to give. To date there are only two power plants in the U.S. using the technology it takes, and neither of these plants takes the next step of capturing the harmful pollutants.(Coniff, 3) The funny thing about this advertising is that even though it is almost completely false, its deception is often successful.

          We also can see this type of propaganda advertising in another industry, the oil industry. Chevron Corporation has recently launches its “human energy” campaign, which “obscures from view the corporation’s more unsightly products, policies and practices.”(Sawyer, 1) This is exactly the purpose of these public relations campaigns, to cloud the public’s vision as to what is really going on. The “human energy” campaign is a multi-million dollar investment for Chevron, who in this campaign “presents itself as a caring entity striving to solve the world’s energy crises through the power of human creative forces.”(Sawyer, 2) While there have been several organized protests against Chevrons “human energy” campaign and these have been successful in some areas as with the stockholders but there is still a long way to go. The next time you see a public relations advertisement that says coal can be clean or oil companies can use less energy, stop and think twice because seeing is believing and if you don’t see the change those advertisements promise then how can you believe them to be true?