Friday, April 29, 2011

Follow-up on the Infamous Coal Plant PR Stunt

Additional info continue to emerge and it appears it's a PR stunt (as discussed in previous posts). Although we're sure many of the concerned residents, the alderman's office and general electric aren't happy, we applaud the creativity behind the PR stunt.

WBEZ has a good post and video:


And to be fair we received this from Midwest Generation:

Hi Sloopin,

Midwest Generation is a client of mine, so we noticed your two blog posts and resulting conversation in the comments today regarding the hoax.

Below is a statement from Midwest Generation:

A letter and pamphlet circulated in recent days to residents of the South Loop and a press release issued today claiming to be from Midwest Generation to announce construction of a power plant in the city are fake.

The materials also refer to a fake Midwest Generation website and twitter account, and have photos
and names of supposed Midwest Generation employees which are also fake. Those behind this hoax also misappropriated Midwest Generation's letterhead and logo.

None of these materials came from Midwest Generation, which owns six power plants and a wind farm in the state of Illinois. Midwest Generation is not building a new plant in the city of Chicago.

There also was a protest against the fake plant on April 27 near the intersection of Harrison and Wells.
It is unclear if the "protesters" were the perpetrators of the fraud or were duped by it.

Regards,

JAMES CHASE
Account Executive
Jasculca/Terman and Associates, Inc.

So there you have it. No coal coming to the South Loop. Take note of Pilsen's problems (and others). And life goes on...

(Hat tip: SC!)

5 comments:

Charlie Thomason said...

Glad to hear this is not true. On the other hand, these jerks somehow managed to get past my apartment building's security to slip one of these papers under everyone's door. If their message was purely to arouse interest in the environmental problems posed by coal power plants, then there's probably a more socially responsible way they could've gone about it.

Anonymous said...

I doubt they had to slip past your building's security. It's likely being that they're Columbia students/staff, they live in your building.

Anonymous said...

Damn Hipsters!

Anonymous said...

What A-Holes, this does not make me want to support your cause.

Anonymous said...

this lady seems overly convinced of herself...although I'm intrigued by the prank, I lost all interest once I heard her talk...ugh