Propaganda

[Easykill]

I saw this commercial on a Candaian news station, which is weird, and immediately thought "propaganda".

http://www.americaspower.org/

The two commercials are on the right when you follow the link. Am I just crazy, or is this the most cleverly assembled packet of lies and patriotism since Hitler?

 

[GrowlersAtSea]

I got a message about the video being unavailable. But here in the US the Coal industry advertises, not it's product, but it's industry as a whole since on a practical level they sell nothing to consumers but want to help their reputation.

Let's face it, coal doesn't have a great reputation. It's dirty, it's a fossil fuel, mining processes for it can be very invasive and ultimately it's a finite resource. As people talk more and more of renewable future-proof sources of energy, coal comes to mind as what we want to be replacing. What coal is though is cheap, plentiful, can be found without going to the middle-east, and it has gotten cleaner over the years. So it makes sense for the industry to throw out it's own "side" to the argument.

Chemical, Plastics and even Boeing I've seen do advertising in a similar fashion. When you can't advertise that your prices are lower than your competitors, or about how your latest product comes with a built in clock-radio, it makes sense I guess to try to pump up the industry as a whole.

 

[Ciarog]

"Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

Daddy will you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late for asking
Mister Peabody's coal train done hauled it away"
-John Prine, Paradise

 

[Knight Templar]

yesh thats bad. but the ex-prime minister (leader of australia) had everyone in my school thinking Nuclear Power was renewable.

 

[standokan]

hitler use the evolution theorie as propaganda, well if that isn't farfetched =.=

 

[Timotei]

There is no such thing as "Clean Coal". They only brand coal as "green" to get the activists off their back, which they are failing at.

You must also remember that practically every corporation (besides Tesco) assumes their audience/client base are misguided sheep who need to be told what to believe.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

There is no such thing as "Clean Coal". They only brand coal as "green" to get the activists off their back, which they are failing at.

You must also remember that practically every corporation (besides Tesco) assumes their audience/client base are misguided sheep who need to be told what to believe.

A fair number of people are sheep, and doesn't take much to do what you want. They are ignorant and believe in word of mouth, not research. They will follow, if told to.

Now everyone on the escapist are well informed people, so I doubt they'll jump out of their seats to do what ever the propaganda tells them too.

 

[ckam]

I didn't really bother with watching all of the videos, so whatever.

 

[RicoADF]

Like it or not Coal will run out sooner or later, and no advertisement is going to stop that

 

[Pimppeter2]

Psh. Friends are temporary. COAL is forever!

 

[Anarchemitis]

There is no such thing as clean coal. There really is no way around the fact that they take rocks and throw them in a fire to generate steam.

 

[walls of cetepedes]

Urk... COAL IS GOOD...

 

[Zombie_Fish]

How many of those advertisement designers do you think have a GCSE in Chemistry? Coal produces carbon dioxide, there is nothing clean about that really, as well as the fact that it is in limited supply.

But the problem is that for a company to survive, they need people to think that they're doing good and are beneficial to the world. What better way for an energy company to do that in a day and age where people are being much more considerate about the environment than to claim that they're being clean to help stop climate change? Doesn't mean they will though, and thus we have propaganda, lying to build up rep.

Whilst it is bad though, I think comparing it to hitler is a bit OTT.

You must also remember that practically every corporation (including Tesco) assumes their audience/client base are misguided sheep who need to be told what to believe.

All companies tell satements to get people to believe that they're the one to go for, this is to get the customer on their side and buy their stuff so that they can make money. Tesco try to make people believe that they offer low prices and good deals. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7YRxO7GEpk]