Cool job posting: Earn $20 pretending to hate wind energy
By Philip Bump
Important job opportunity, everyone. From Craigslist:
Our firm needs 100 volunteers to attend and participate in a rally in front of the British Consulate/Embassy in Midtown Manhattan on the East Side on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 12 noon. The event is being held in order to protest wind turbines that are being built in Scotland and England. Your participation will be to ONLY stand next to or behind the speakers and elected officials/celebrities that will be speaking at the rally.
“Volunteers” will each get $20. That’s the going rate in New York City for a closely held political principle.
ray_from_laThis is sort of what protestors look like. Later in the ad, the firm behind the job request is identified as Ovation. It’s a common enough name that it’s hard to pin down the who’s coordinating this thing. I’ve emailed to see if we can find out more information, but am not holding my breath for a response.
The main question is this: Who hired Ovation to stage this totally authentic rally? Are there any morally questionable opponents of wind energy in the U.K. who are centered in midtown New York City and are willing to use money to buy allies, but not really very much money? Not that I can think of.