“Mad Men” Stars Have a New Product to Pitch: High-Speed Rail

Vincent Kartheiser, who plays Pete Campbell on the hit series “Mad Men”, and Rich Sommer, who plays Harry Crane, have teamed up with U.S. PIRG to make a video about high-speed rail. In it, Campbell suggests an ad campaign for trains, which Crane finds ridiculous — trains make so much sense; why would you need to sell them? It ends with a call to action.

U.S. PIRG developed the video with FunnyOrDie.com, where people can basically post anything they think is funny and viewers vote on whether or not it’s funny enough. The high-speed rail video is “a way to reach new audiences and build excitement for high-speed rail projects around the country,” according to Phineas Baxandall at U.S. PIRG.

Meanwhile, the Regional Plan Association yesterday released a less funny but still worthwhile video called “Why Build High-Speed Rail in the Northeast,” making the argument that projected population growth makes rail investment an imperative.