CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS: BALLOT MEASURES : ‘Big Green’ to Send Message in Big TV Doses

Supporters of Proposition 128, a sweeping environmental ballot initiative they call “Big Green,” launched a rare television campaign Wednesday using 30-minute commercials narrated by some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry.

The advertisement consists of a series of emotionally charged segments in which celebrities and others urge voters to save the environment by voting for and contributing money to the proposition on the November ballot. The initiative, supported by the state’s major environmental groups, attempts to attack a variety of ills, including global warming, water pollution, food safety and the depletion of the atmosphere’s protective ozone layer.

In a major departure from the usual 30-second and even 10-second political commercials, the ad for the initiative tests viewers’ notoriously fickle viewing habits with its half-hour of appeals and footage of polluted coastlines, smoggy cities, belching smokestacks and airborne pesticide sprayings. The ad, scheduled to start airing Saturday, will run 74 times over the next two weeks on 15 cable and independent networks. It includes a 900 number for viewers who wish to contribute money.

“If they can show that this works, they will start a trend in television advertising, not just on environmental issues,” said Larry J. Sabato, a University of Virginia professor of government who has written a book about campaign consultants. “Many consultants felt that because of the proliferation of cable, 30-minute programs would be making a comeback.”

Thirty-minute political commercials were popular in the 1960s but later became very rare because of their expense and inability to hold the interest of all but the most committed voters and supporters. Sabato said the availability of relatively inexpensive time on cable stations may spark a resurgence in longer ads that are designed not to reach a broad audience, but a targeted viewership likely to contribute money as well as votes.

“That’s the great thing about cable,” he said. “It segments the market. You can reduce costs and you can market much more effectively.”

Using celebrities enhances the chances that viewers will tune in, Sabato said. Among those appearing in the commercial are actors Jack Lemmon, Susan Sarandon, Cybill Shepherd, Chevy Chase and Jane Fonda.

The commercial, narrated by actor Jeff Bridges, begins with director Oliver Stone asking viewers to hold their breath. “Every instinct will start to shout and scream for air,” he says. Stone compares the effect to the “choking of the planet” from gases that cause global warming.

“OK, breathe,” he concludes. “Remember, you just ran out of air. And we’re running out of time.”

Indeed, the commercial paints a bleak picture of California’s environment. There is a shot of a deformed fish and a fisherman who worries he no longer will be able to make a living because of water contamination. The narrator repeatedly says there has been a sharp increase in cancer in children since 1950.

A young girl near a sign identifying the community of McFarland weeps as she tells how pesticides have made people in her area sick. (State health authorities have found no evidence that mysteriously high cancer rates in McFarland and other agricultural communities are related to pesticides.) And actor Gregory Peck says, “It takes just three minutes to destroy the work of centuries.” A lumberjack then cuts through a huge redwood tree.

Opponents of the proposition, who have charged that it tries to do too much without enough specific remedies, ridiculed the length of the commercial as “appropriate for a 39-page, 16,000-word document.”

Scott Macdonald, spokesman for the “No on 28” campaign, said the commercial appeared to contain many exaggerations. For instance, not all fish caught off the coast of California are contaminated. He labeled as “absurd” a suggestion in the commercial that the initiative’s proposed ban on additional pesticides would not cause food prices to rise or produce quality to decline. “

“You can go to any organic grocery store and see the difference in cost and appearance of produce,” he said.

“Big Green”--dubbed “the Hayden initiative” by opponents, after Assemblyman Tom Hayden, one of its authors--would require the state to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide 20% from 1988 levels by the year 2000, and 40% by 2010. Carbon dioxide contributes to global warming by trapping the Earth’s heat much as the panes of a greenhouse absorb heat. The measure does not specify how such gases would be cut but creates a new position for an environmental advocate to ensure enforcement of the state’s environmental laws.

Bob Hattoy, a Sierra Club regional representative who is supporting the measure, said the commercial was designed so that even one or two segments will provide powerful messages. Most viewers probably will not watch the full half-hour, he said, but each time they see it, they will probably be catching different segments.

Hayden, a Santa Monica Democrat, said the commercial represents the biggest “hit” for the least amount of money. Getting 30 seconds on prime-time network television could cost $16,000, compared to $300 for 30 minutes on cable, he said.

The initiative campaign also will air 30-second commercials, possibly slices of the larger ad. VH-1, which is owned by MTV Networks, and WTBS, a Turner Broadcasting station, will be among those that carry the long commercial. In addition, the ad will be shown in private homes during campaign events.