The endless images associated with the greatest U.S. environmental disaster of all time—a fishing boat dragging an orange boom to corral a slick of oil or a stained pelican drenched in a chocolate-colored residue from wing to wing—certainly will influence public perception. Ethanol supporters hope those images will cast the debates surrounding biofuels in a new light. Luckily, several advertising campaigns were in the works before the oil spill. Visually and verbally, the campaigns are aimed at changing the American public's perception of ethanol.
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The Visual
Even with a strong national presence at the pump, the general appearance and perception of ethanol in the mainstream has mainly been provided by billboards, print advertisements and websites. Since April, however, television commercials created by prominent ethanol promoters have been airing on CNN, MSNBC, Fox and HLN networks. Supported by Poet LLC, Growth Energy, UNICA and the National Corn Growers Association , the ads are giving a new face to ethanol reminiscent of the “Got Milk” presence.
The newest of these, from the NCGA, began airing June 28. Speaking over a series of images that starts with a flaming oil rig in the middle of an ocean, a voice declares, “It’s clear that events here at home and abroad demand a different solution to our energy needs.” NCGA coupled its TV commercial with a series of print ads featuring individual farmers and farm families with one person holding a numbered sign, the number associated with an important statistic. One ad states, “An acre of corn removes 8 tons of harmful greenhouse gas, more than that produced by your car.”
Ken Colombini, director of communications for the NCGA, says the ad campaign was developed to advance the success of the Renewable Fuels Reinvestment Act, and to assist with the inclusion of pro-corn ethanol provisions in the proposed energy bill. “Whatever the vehicle, NCGA supports energy legislation extending the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit and the tariff on imported ethanol,” Colombini says. “If VEETC expires at the end of this year, U.S. ethanol production capacity could decrease by 38 percent and impact rural communities most heavily. For corn farmers, this also could mean a 30 cent per bushel price drop.”
Darrin Ihnen, president of the NCGA, also cites the future energy bill in talking about NCGA’s investment of more than $1 million in the new campaign for ethanol. “Legislation is before Congress to continue much needed incentives and there is a new energy bill on the horizon, making it an important and critical time to talk about ethanol’s many environmental and economic benefits to our country.”
As the NCGA commercial plays out on the screen, it makes the case that the answer to our energy needs are right here in the U.S. “One answer grows in our own backyard,” the commercial states,“turning American corn into America’s energy.” Pointing to a June 21 USDA study citing the improved efficiency of corn ethanol production, Ihnen adds, “it’s no wonder we’re saying ‘Now is the time for ethanol.’ The industry is making great progress and corn growers have another record crop in the field so we can meet all needs.” Overlapping an image of a young farming family, the voice in the commercial adds, “We feed the world. We can fuel it, too.”
Poet’s television campaign, launched well before the oil spill, aims at telling the story of ethanol to a larger audience, according to Greg Breukelman, Poet’s senior vice president of communications. In three separate commercials featuring a plant manager, a farmer and a scientist, the camera zooms in on the person speaking freely amongst people bustling by, in a place where cornfields are miles away—New York City. The plant manager wearing a hard hat, a pair of khakis and holding a clipboard, starts his free verse poem, “American Dollar, a poem,” and goes on to say, “The dollar is still building the tallest buildings in the world. It just built one in Dubai. $250 billion a year for foreign oil will go a long way.” The commercial ends with the speaker (a fictional character named Steve Ross) walking away into the crowd of people on a busy street. A phrase on the screen then comes into focus saying, “For every billion gallons of ethanol produced, we create 20,000 American jobs.” Similarly, Poet’s other two commercials also include a free verse poem on the subject of ethanol. The farmer spot shows a man dressed in a faded brown Carhart jacket with baseball cap in hand speaking about what his family can do for America: “Give me a little rain mixed with a little sun. I’ll give you plenty of food with fuel to boot. And I’ll do the same thing tomorrow.” And the commercial featuring a woman scientist dressed in a white lab coat tells the viewer, “I turn waste into fuel…and one day I’ll let you tell the Middle East where they can ship their tankers.”
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