Chevron’s
new ad campaign talks the talk. “Oil Companies Need to Get Real” and
“Oil Companies Should Put Their Profits To Good Use,” for instance. It
comes so close to them actually turning into good corporate citizens
that when spoofmeisters The Yes Men snuck out a fake press release late last night, they had some media outlets fooled.
Fast Company magazine writes:
Part of the genius of the Yes Men is that they really know when to pull the trigger on a goodprank. To wit: They fired off a press release, which we were initially fooled by, to us in the wee hours, before anyone from Chevron could actually respond to real questions for verification (this is an edited version of our original post). And of course, in the wake of the BP disaster, lots of oil-related stories that once seemed unbelievable are now much more plausible.
If we had to get punked, we’re glad it was by the Yes Men, who have quite a track record of pulling really convincing stunts. Their slightly off URL, www.chevron-press.com, was a spitting-image spoof of the real www.chevron.com. Also, Yes Men hucksters clearly watcheMad Men as often as we do and were riding high from Don Draper’s nuclear-option “Why I’m Quitting Tobacco” letter in the New York Times.
Fast work for the Yes Men… the New York Times picks up the story:
Chevron announced the campaign to reporters on Monday morning in e-mails, which were sent after the publication of an article about the ads in the Monday editions of The Wall Street Journal. There was also a news release about the campaign posted to a section of the Chevron Web site.
The campaign, by McGarryBowen in New York, carries the theme “We agree.” The ads seek to address critics of energy companies by affirming statements like “Oil companies should support the communities they’re part of” and “Oil companies should put their profits to good use.” A section of the Chevron Web site is also devoted to the campaign.
However, hours before the e-mails were sent, e-mails intended to resemble Chevron corporate missives also went out. They cited a different Web address, chevron-weagree.com, and included a link to what seemed to be an authentic news release on the official Chevron site.
The backstory:
For years, Chevron (and predecessor companies now owned by Chevron) trashed the pristine Amazon rainforest, drilling, spilling, and then walking away. They were sued by a coalition of indiginous peoples whose land was tainted by Chevron; rather than do the right thing and pay for the cleanup, Chevron has fought them every step of the way. For seventeen years. And their actions speak louder than their pretty words.
Karen Hinton, a spokeswoman for the tribal plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said “The spoof is a direct consequence of Chevron’s trying to fool people into thinking it is an environmentally conscious when the company is responsible for the extensive contamination found in Ecuador’s rain forest and in other places as well.”
Rainforest Action Network, which partnered with Yes Men on the hoax, described it as a “satirical counter-campaign.”
“When it comes to oil spills, climate change and human rights abuses, we need real action from Chevron. Instead, the oil giant has prioritized a high-priced glossy advertising campaign that attempts to trick the American people into believing it is different than BP.”
More backstory:
