Home now playing on YouTube page near you

June 5, 2009 by shelter · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Spin and PR 

Renowned French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and director Luc Besson just released “Home” — a documentary on climate change that’s extraordinary simply by the nature of it’s release: It can be viewed on YouTube today and is being made available for free to TV stations and movie theaters.

Free screenings will occur today around the globe, among other places at the base of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, in New York’s Central Park and on London’s Trafalgar Square.

From what I’ve seen in the first 20 minutes, it’s visually stunning — shot entirely from the air. But the script, narrated by Glenn Close, sounds a bit like “natural history of the Earth in under an hour.” Definitely worth checking out, if only to be part of the whole zeitgeist of the thing.

Arthus-Bertrand makes clear on the Home home page that his aspirations for the film’s impact are quite high:

We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth’s climate.

The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.

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LOL GOP video: How not to appear cool

June 5, 2009 by shelter · 2 Comments
Filed under: Spin and PR 

An unintentionally funny video of the GOP’s noble efforts to fight the Waxman-Markey climate change bill has got to cheer the bill’s supports. As Grist’s Kate Sheppard says:

Now the House Republican Conference has produced a “greatest hits” reel on their travels (and if these were the highlights, we’d hate to see the lowlights).  With melodramatic music and stiffs in suits, we think it could be the comedy sleeper hit of the summer.

I’m actually most fond of the red arrows that leap across the map from city to city, as if we’re in 1940s espionage drama.

Seriously: this can’t be for real. Did some congressmen con his colleagues to give the contract to make the video to his out-of-work grandpa?

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Clean Coal’s ad campaign makes creators proud

June 3, 2009 by shelter · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Spin and PR 

The ad campaign that’s fallen thick and heavy on TV airwaves with images of President Obama endorsing “clean coal” may shoot noxious fumes out of the ears and eyeballs of environmentalists. But it sure does give the ad agency responsible something to boast about.

The anti-greenwashing DeSmogBlog notes that R&R Advertising and Persuasion, which devised the campaign for the coal industry’s “American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity,” is holding it up as great example of the Vegas-based agency’s talents: Read more

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