If Susan Sarandon gets tired of the movie biz, she has a bright future in the field of political attack ad voiceover work.
The Bernie Sanders spot "No Fracking Anywhere" is a hair short of being a full-blown attack ad, as Hillary Clinton's name is not mentioned. But the ad otherwise follows the negative ad formula.
Sanders Implicitly Knocks Clinton for Resisting Fracking Ban
Sarandon, plays the off-camera narrator and delivers the implicit blow: "Do Washington politicians side with polluters over families? They sure do, because Big Oil pumps millions into their campaigns. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate for president who opposes fracking everywhere." As she speaks, we see a fracking well replacing the spire of the U.S. Capitol, and drilling in the front of the Capitol steps. We later see water containing methane set on fire, echoing an
image made famous in the documentary Gasland.
By not using Clinton's name, and only referring to "Washington politicians" receiving "Big Oil" funds, Sanders' media consultants avoid re-litigating the controversy over how much money Clinton accepts from fossil fuels. The Sanders campaign cited a Greenpeace study that shows 57 lobbyists for fossil fuel companies raising money for Clinton, but a
Washington Post fact check noted those lobbyists have a wide range of clients, including renewable fuel companies, and the amount of money tied to the industry is a small portion of her overall take.
Sarandon Says Sanders "Can't Be Bought"
Still, as the candidate with the largest small-donor base, Sanders is eager to seize the moral high ground. Sarandon concludes, "Bernie. He can't be bought by them, because he's funded by you."
Sanders' political consultants want to emphasize fracking in the New York primary because the state's environmental activists successfully pushed for a statewide fracking ban, and they may be skeptical of Clinton who stops short of a total ban. Now they have some celebrity wattage to give the issue an extra charge.
