Hot Air from the Firm Behind "Clean Coal"

"The advertising firm behind the heavily-aired 'America's Power' campaign, R&R Partners - Advertising, has come out with its own brag-sheet detailing the ad work it did for the coal industry's main front group," the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), reports Kevin Grandia. According to R&R's public relations account supervisor, Rob Van Raaphorst, the firm "educate[d] our audiences on the importance of coal in their daily lives," using "grassroots" outreach, "earned media, paid media and advocacy tactics that created a 'surround-sound' effect." The "grassroots" outreach included "street teams, walking billboards, mobile billboards and recruitment and mobilization of an ACCCE Army ... at presidential primaries, debates, conventions and other key campaign events." R&R also worked on a $400,000 website, CleanCoalUSA.org, "to establish Coal-Based Generation Stakeholders as a recognized advocacy group and source for information about clean-coal technologies."