I believe this commercial actually hurt the move towards going green. Nothing upsets Americans more than being told what they can and can't do, the "green police" ad was just that. All it did was strike fear into people who are skeptical about the benefits of green and the people who are sitting on the fence about whether to go or how far towards going green.
Two first hand personal examples about being green:
1. I grew up just below the top of a hill in San Francisco. As a boy in the sixties would climb to the top were we would play. I remember not being able to see across the bay to the Oakland hills in the east bay as the sky was a rust colored brown. This was pre-smog on cars. As an apprentice mechanic in the early 1980's the older guys would lament about all the new technology that was killing the cars. That was the growing pains of testing and tweaking to get it correct. 40 years later the east bay hills are in clear view.
2. In 2001 I was working at an indoor bus yard were the fleet was composed of 100 M.A.N. buses that were of 1984 vintage. The fumes were terrible. I took an 8 yr hiatus courtesy of the USCG and returned to a new fleet of coaches. These buses have Cleair soot scrubbers and run 10% bio-diesel. The air is actually tolerable.
There is nothing wrong with clean air, clean water, and not having trash strewed all over the place. Three years ago San Francisco pased a resolution banning the use of plastic bags at grocery stores. The end of the urban tumble weed came about in the City. Drive down the interstate and one of the leading blights is plastics, bags and wrappers that are caught on the fences alongside the road. No more overheated buses as these would get sucked up and block the air flow across the radiator.
Yeah, that commercial did nothing but hurt the chances of growing green expanding to the fence sitters.
