The following mock air freshener ad is directed by Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen. It's actually a brief TV spot for the "This is Reality" campaign by the Reality Coalition, which asks the coal industry to come clean and admit that "clean coal" doesn't exist.
Seeing that black cloud of smoke in the ad reminded me of a funny story. In 2006, two future Oscar contenders (and eventual rivals) No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood happened to be shooting in the same small town of Marfa, Texas at the same time. The Coens had to halt production for a whole day because a giant black smoke in the sky kept floating into the shots. As it turned out, the smoke came from the There Will Be Blood set. It was Paul Thomas Anderson testing the pyros for the big fire scene (if you've seen the film, you know the scene). Maybe the Coens drew inspiration and motivation for the ad from that experience?
The Reality Coalition says that this is only the first in a series of ads directed by the Coen Brothers. More Coens, you say? The concept behind the ads, however, come from the same agency that does all the Truth anti-tobacco ads. Stupid annoying ads directed by the Coens? My brain is confused.
