misleading pollution ad

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I was watching TV with my niece this weekend and saw what I thought was a good ad to conserve electricity to minimize pollution. It said to turn out lights and appliances when they were not in use so that powerplants would not make pollution producing electricity...sounds good and all, and I can agree with that, but then they showed a picture of a row of cooling towers at a powerplant with steam coming out of them.

...ahem! when was steam pollution?!?!?! Yes, some powerplants produce pollution, but cooling towers themselves DON'T pollute! It looked as even if they took the pictures on an overcast, damp day, so the plumes of steam coming out the cooling towers would be even bigger, and the condition looked worse on the dull, gray day. The thing is that many industrial operations use cooling towers and they discharge steam. By showing kids (and other unknowing people) pictures of cooling towers and saying "this is pollution" it misleads kids and people into thinking these things pollute, even when the industrial operation the cooling towers are attached to are not producing any actual air pollution. The thing is it could lead to people chastising and scapegoating a business or industry in their locality for polluting when they actually are not!

Continuity errors are one thing, but when they are deliberate, in order to deceive, is just crooked!

I've an example though it's of different sort (for "fishscam.com"). Print ad from the New Yorker magazine a couple years ago-saved it because it weirded me out.
It reads:

Large print-"Concerned about mercury ?"
Then it shows image of can with fake label "Genuine whale meat with blubber bits-huge mammal taste !"
Text continues, "You shouldn't be. Unless you eat this."
In small print at bottom of page:
"Enviromental scares about trace amounts of mercury in fish rely on a study of island natives who eat huge amounts of whale meat. However, scientists who study heavy fish-eaters find no health risks from mercury. So, unless you're lunching on a Moby Dick sandwich, there's no reason to worry. Fish is good for you. Baseless anxiety (or whale blubber) isn't."

That just rubbed me the wrong way. Disclaimer-I don't eat fish myself because I find it yucky, regardless of whether it's good, bad-or both (for my health). Also, am NOT trying to get into the whole "mercury & autism" thing in any way (I don't know the answer, so I don't participate in those arguments), only that this ad came across as inherently distorted/manipulative.