Watch This: Coen Bros. Direct 'Clean Coal Air Freshener'
Filed under: Politics, Trailers and Clips
Last year about this time, Joel and Ethan Coen were basking in the glow of winning multiple Academy Awards for No Country for Old Men. This year, they're hard at work finishing their black comedy follow-up, A Serious Man, which is due out this fall.
While they're in that black comedy mood, the Coen Brothers took time out to direct a 30-second TV ad in support of the Reality Coalition. You can watch the video, which is embedded below, thanks to the folks at Funny or Die. The Reality Coalition wants to "expose the coal industry's misleading marketing campaign for so-called 'clean coal,'" according to a prepared statement.
The Coens have always laced their work with sly, subversive messages, but the video is the first time they've been so straightforward in making a contribution to a, gulp, somewhat political campaign. (Don't worry, the ad itself won't knock you over the head with its message.) The press release says they "were excited to be part of this important project."
I love the line, "Clean Coal Clean harnesses the awesome power of the word 'clean' to make it sound like the cleanest there is." Beyond the concept and the ad copy, what makes the spot work is the deadpan comic timing of the Coen Brothers; the 'suburban family trying a new product' is a tried-and-true advertising gambit, but they give it a good, choking spin. Check it out:
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-27-2009 @ 1:44PM
Austin said...
This is cute. I could make a joke about the Coen's work but they are fine directors.
I will say that it's amusing to see some people (cough environmentalistscoughliberalscough) use misleading ads to counter the half truths of the coal industry.
I can picture a much funnier ad involving carbon capture (the force behind clean coal) but that would require telling the truth and letting people think for themselves..
And we can't have that in today's world :-)
Reply
2-27-2009 @ 7:19PM
facebookfake said...
The idea that the emissions of coal are it's only draw back is laughable. Carbon capture techniques, while helping to "clean" the air, does not change the fact that coals extraction is an equal, if not greater, shortcoming.
Having lived in the Appalachia area and witnessing first hand the unmitigated destruction mountaintop removal mining has done on a once great American landscape, not to mention the inhabitants, coal is an energy form we can quite frankly do without. Clean burning or not.