http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060505/cm_huffpost/020393

New Industry Ads Use Kids to Pimp Coal

This is as low as it gets, lower than any industry has gone to promote their product since Big Tobacco paid doctors to recommended certain brands of cigarettes over others. The coal industry's new multi-million dollar ad campaign features a series of kids extolling the wonderful virtues of this dirtiest of fuels.

These ads are running non-stop and are unfortunately impossible to ignore. Believe me, I've tried. How despicable is it to use kids to advertise a product that is literally going to destroy their future?

No matter how many cute kids ABEC hires to pimp coal as nifty and clean, coal-burning power plants still pump out 40 percent of America's global warming CO2 pollution, more than any other source........

Don't be fooled by the non-profity sounding ".org" tag, these ads and websites were paid for by a coal industry astro-turf group called Americans
for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC), which is made up of King Coal constituents in the mining, hauling and burning industries. Primary funders include the world's largest coal producer Peabody Energy, railroad giant Burlington Northern/Santa Fe, and Southern Company, one of the largest
coal-burning electric utilities in the U.S.

The website features more kids creepily reading the crafty messaging of the coal industry's P.R. gurus, and uses schoolhouse references like "Today's Homework Assignment" to help you "learn more.".......

So coal industry, how about it? Skip the astro-turf P.R. and stop prostituting children in the name of your short-term greed.

But you know, they won't stop. They will continue to devestate huge swaths of land in the process of extracting thier Black Gold, never to be restored. Thier product will be burned, ever more fiercely, as hydrocarbons deplete. The massive amounts of CO2 produced, will dramatically increase the speed of the climate meltdown. But as long as kiddies are selling the message, the general public will be schmoozed into thinking, what thier up to must be " clean and wholesome ".