(Sad Trombone Noise) $24 Million In Public Money For Keystone XL Ad Campaign Had Almost Zero Effect
America and Canada are friends. That’s the main message Americans got from phase one of the federal government's multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to promote Canadian oil in Washington and drum up support for the Keystone XL pipeline. That’s no surprise to some Washington-based Canada-U.S. relations experts who say the first leg of the campaign was too polite and, well, too Canadian to have any real effect.
The ads were part of a $24 million, taxpayer-funded international blitz to boost energy exports by convincing policy makers that "Canada is a secure, reliable, and responsible supplier of crude oil" and other resources, said Jacinthe Perras, a spokesperson with the Department of Natural Resources.
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David Biette also believes the ads missed their mark. "Buy our oil because we’re nice people — that doesn't fly," said the director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre in Washington. "My take was the Canadian government wanted to get American policy makers to realize that Canadian oil was important to the American economy and that we should therefore build the Keystone pipeline. But that was never said."
Biette said Americans expect more aggressive, to-the-point advertising. He added, the issue down south is "not about Canada. It’s about the way the oilsands is [manufactured]." Biette said Ottawa also failed on the environmental message. A paltry two per cent thought the ads were about improving the environment. Canada is still waiting for the U.S. to approve the Keystone pipeline which would carry crude from Canadian oilsands to American refineries. President Obama has said he wouldn’t give the project a thumbs-up if the project would exacerbate carbon pollution.
Second phase starts soon
As part of its campaign, the Conservative government recently ran a full-page ad inside the back cover of The New Yorker. It showed a pristine green valley with a river running through it and the headline: "America and Canada have the same greenhouse gas reduction targets."
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Pardon me while I 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/24m-ad-campaign-for-keystone-pipeline-had-little-impact-survey-1.2742079