Marketing The Past, A New Challenge
Posted on December 14, 2008 under Energy Crisis, Energy Politics & Policy, Humor,
Remember when you were a little kid, watching t.v. with your parents and asking, “Daddy, what does coal do?” And he goes, “Well son, just watch the advertisement during the next commercial break, paid for by the coal lobbyist group.”
Me neither; maybe it’s because I grew up without t.v., or maybe it’s because these ads NEVER EXISTED BEFORE!
I find it absolutely fascinating that the airwaves and t.v. minutes are being saturated with advertisements for “Coal, America’s Fuel” and “Heating Oil, Now That’s Comfort.” If you go to the American Coal Council’s website there’s a picture of. . . a. . . golf course. “Coal, The People Who Do Business on The Course.” The heating oil campaign is hitting hard here in New England because many people are realizing they can’t afford to heat their homes with oil so they are looking for alternatives.
The radio and tv must love the revenues, as these industries have never had to advertise in the past. Why? Because there were no alternatives and there was no public awareness of the damage these industries are doing to our planet and our future. They have been saying our ‘way of life’ depends on these resources. But I would challenge, which came first, the chicken or the egg? We now have the alternatives and thus the option of adapting our lifestyle to a new world, a world where we walk and ride bikes more and actually know the names of our neighbors, where we work in buildings and communities that were designed for us, not cars, and where our very ‘way of life’ does not threaten the very life of the next few generations.
Maybe the advertising is a sign of weakness. . . Or at least a changing marketplace, which is heartening.
Remember when you were a little kid, watching t.v. with your parents and asking, “Daddy, what does coal do?” And he goes, “Well son, just watch the advertisement during the next commercial break, paid for by the coal lobbyist group.”
Me neither; maybe it’s because I grew up without t.v., or maybe it’s because these ads NEVER EXISTED BEFORE!
I find it absolutely fascinating that the airwaves and t.v. minutes are being saturated with advertisements for “Coal, America’s Fuel” and “Heating Oil, Now That’s Comfort.” If you go to the American Coal Council’s website there’s a picture of. . . a. . . golf course. “Coal, The People Who Do Business on The Course.” The heating oil campaign is hitting hard here in New England because many people are realizing they can’t afford to heat their homes with oil so they are looking for alternatives.
The radio and tv must love the revenues, as these industries have never had to advertise in the past. Why? Because there were no alternatives and there was no public awareness of the damage these industries are doing to our planet and our future. They have been saying our ‘way of life’ depends on these resources. But I would challenge, which came first, the chicken or the egg? We now have the alternatives and thus the option of adapting our lifestyle to a new world, a world where we walk and ride bikes more and actually know the names of our neighbors, where we work in buildings and communities that were designed for us, not cars, and where our very ‘way of life’ does not threaten the very life of the next few generations.
Maybe the advertising is a sign of weakness. . . Or at least a changing marketplace, which is heartening.
