“Sound of Silence” commercial was launched this week – a commentary on the  impact of the Exxon Valdez event and our future is tankers allowed on the BC coast.

http://andrewfrank.com/coastal-first-nations-launch-oil-spill-ad-campaign-to-counter-harper-governments-pipeline-public-relations-offensive/

I produced the ad for my client, the Coastal First Nations, working alongside their team in writing and editing the video, and coordinating the music licensing with Paul Simon’s music label. For whatever reason, after thinking about an oil spill, I thought about the Sound of Silence, and I thought it was a sad and powerful analogy for the effect an oil spill would have on the coastal communities who rely on a healthy marine environment for their livelihoods (fishing and tourism, and the social and cultural values of being out on the water).

After hearing Exxon Valdez captain Joe Hazelwood’s radio call to the Coast Guard, I knew we needed to make it into a commercial, to remind British Columbians of what an oil spill looks like, and that at the end of the day, human error plays a major role in any accident (e.g. Queen of the North, and the piloted freighters that recently ran aground in Prince Rupert). That meant sifting through lot’s of video footage from the Alaskan Archives, where they provide the videos for free as a public service – they don’t want the same thing to happen anywhere else.

I’m interested to hear what folks in Oliver think about the commercial and whether they’ve been seeing it on Global TV. I’m also curious about their thoughts on whether coastal communities should have a right to say “no” to development projects they think pose an unacceptable risk to their way of life.

At the end of the day, BC’s First Nations and their unceded lands are the major factor in whether the Enbridge pipeline will be built, but BC public opinion also plays an important role. BC will be a key battleground in the next federal election, so our opinions and votes count very much, and I expect that pipelines and oil tankers may be one of the issues we’re paying attention to.

More to come in this long-running public debate over the future of pipelines and oil tankers in BC!

Andrew