If you haven't, you're missing out. It's a drama that's won a slew of Emmy Awards that centers around an advertising firm in the sixties. Regardless of your reason for watching, you can find a home in how well the show is set. Personally, as your average twenty-something male, I tend to gravitate towards how utterly novel it is that Don Draper (the male protagonist) sits in his office drinking liquor and smoking cigarettes all day while working. Alternately, some of my more fashion-aware friends love the costuming and how they really capture the setting. Either way, the show is a period piece that does a great job of making the watcher feel like they're actually witness to the inner workings of an advertising company in the sixties. (Whether this is caricature or accurate, I don't know. I'm not in advertising.)
There's an oft-repeated quote from that show; in one episode, Don tells Peggy (the female lead) that “The reason you haven't felt [love] is because it doesn't exist. What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons.” Other implications aside, the quote coolly catches the spirit of advertising: you're convincing a potential customer that they want (even need) something that you can provide them—for the low, low price of $29.99.
Or $6.2 billion.
Whatever.
David Cochrane recently pointed out on twitter that the Muskrat Falls project we've been hearing about in Newfoundland was first announced almost two years ago. It's billed by its supporters as way for NL to retcon the Churchill Falls mishap & reliably provide ourselves with our own power. We could even sell some on the side to our great friends in Nova Scotia or Quebec. However, due to its handling over time, it's morphed from this ideal future project to a giant political talking point shrouded in unanswered questions.
So giant, in fact, that it now generally falls under the old “politics and religion” criteria of things you don't talk about in polite company. For the rare few of you reading this who didn't get here from a link I posted on twitter, it's a well established fact that I work with folks from the older generation who generally lean conservative. Don Cherry is the second coming of Christ, and wouldn't you know it, Danny Williams is the third. Needless to say, I'm one of the few there who doesn't rigidly believe that Muskrat Falls is going to fix all of our energy problems, god dammit!
...It's a topic best not discussed if we want to keep from heated discussions. They're fun, but distracting.
The reason I'm rambling on these points today is because the proponents of Muskrat Falls have started a new publicity campaign, promoting the slogan (& hashtag) I Believe In The Power of NL. I can see the need to put a new faceplate on this whole situation; it's getting more politicized and more divisive by the day. So, when you tweet about #MuskratFalls, it's sort of hard to not bring at least some negative energy to the table, regardless of your leaning. Conversely, when you tweet about #PowerOfNL, you're talking about literally the shining hope of our province, forever and ever amen.
That slogan, of course, plays cleverly on a double entendre: not only are you talking about literally powering NL with electricity, but you're metaphorically referring to the strength-y sort of power that NL can have politically. We've been lifting weights, and the next time that mean Quebec kid comes and tries to take our lunch money or our waterfall money, we'll show them THE POWER OF NL!!!
I don't really have the internet clout (or klout, as you social media kids refer to these days) to really be heard by many other than a few friends and acquaintances, but this sort of hyperbole is exactly why I was tweeting in jest with that hashtag this morning after the launch. It was a silly play on the oldschool Newfoundlander stereotype. The tweets were:
"#PowerOfNL? b'ys! can't be usin' that as a hashtag. too confusing! there's the Powers from up the shore, Powers from Botwood, Powers from..."
"you tells bas power & mose power they're tarred wit the same hashtag, they'll be rotted! especially seein' there's hash involved.#PowerOfNL"
Hey guys, I can play on the word "power", too!
I'll throw my cards on the table. I'm at best a casual follower of politics. I'll vote, I'll watch debates, I'll leaf through major points of party platforms. But it's not my job, nor my passion. I won't read a 100-page release, I'll wait for a couple three-page summaries to pop up somewhere online and see what I should care about. So my opinion doesn't even matter, really.
I'm still going to share it.
I have a math degree, I'm a numbers guy; I sell car parts, I'm a practical guy. I don't know how I'm going to feel about this project until you can tell me exactly what it pulls out of my pocket, exactly what it puts back into my pocket, and those same vital points about any alternative plans. Sure, a coal lobbyist tells me coal would be cheaper but... well... that's his job, regardless of the truth, isn't it?
That's exactly what my personal beef and mockery of #PowerOfNL comes down to. A clever double entendre loaded with implications... that doesn't just sound like a PR strategy meant to convince me on an issue; no, with the website launch and emergence of that campaign, I feel like I'm outright being sold something that I don't know if I need. It feels like they're cheaply trying to gain public sway by retiring that dirty, unmentionable #MuskratFalls and making it so that, even if you're being critical, you're still acknowledging the #PowerOfNL. They're invoking Newfoundland pride (something even more abundant in these parts than natural resources) to sway popular opinion. Flagrant marketing tactics. I don't like it, and today I trust everyone involved with the whole racket less than I did yesterday.
I don't believe in the power of NL.
The power of NL doesn't exist.
The power of NL doesn't exist.
The Power of NL was invented by guys like Don Draper to sell me nylons.
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