Environmentalists have long been associated with young, white, male, liberals… hippies, if you will. You know, people who don’t understand the value of jobs that you do with your hands, but seem to think the spotted owl is the bees knees.
This has made it difficult to “sell” environmentalism to the working class, rural folk, and farmers. This advertisement, sent in by Lauren G, was produced by the Alliance for Climate Protection (chaired by Al Gore). It tries to reframe environmentalism as a rural issue:
Notice how very carefully the image is managed: the belt buckle, the plaid shirt, and the baseball cap are all classic farmer gear (at least, that’s what the Northern California farmers in my family wear); the near-vintage green “pick up truck”; the colloquialisms (“hell’s half acre”); the pairing of a weathered face with wind turbines; and the gentle accent.
