Back in 2020, advertisements from Big Oil companies were focused on climate actions, like touting renewable energy investments or emphasizing sustainability pledges.
But now, those companies seem to have shifted away from the climate and back toward normalizing fossil fuel dependence, a new report notes.
Clean Creatives, an advocacy group that works to get PR and ad professionals to give up their fossil fuel clients, outlined the trajectory of this shift in a report that analyzed nearly 1,900 ads from BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, and Chevron.
Those ads span from 2020 to 2024, and show what Clean Creatives calls a transition away from greenwashing and toward “climate gaslighting.”
Big Oil ads now push the narrative that oil and gas are economic necessities, the report says—crucial to address our growing energy demands.
And, instead of discussing renewables like solar and wind, they now highlight technologies like carbon capture, which experts say is often used to justify more fossil fuel extraction.
Big Oil says fossil fuels are “indispensable”
This messaging playbook coincides with geopolitical instabilities, from the ongoing war in Ukraine to America’s escalation in Iran, that highlight how vulnerable our global fossil fuel markets actually are.
Those disruptions have led to rising oil prices—prompting climate experts to note that renewable energy would have buffered our country from such volatility. Sunlight and wind, many have pointed out, don’t need to go through the Strait of Hormuz.
But even as the world is noticing how detrimental it is to rely on fossil fuels, Big Oil is doubling down on framing their products as a permanent fixture of life, and “indispensable to national security,” Clean Creatives says.
To that advocacy group, this messaging amounts to gaslighting. It ignores the fact that renewable energy is cheap to build and would insulate countries from such geopolitical instability.
“Greenwashing has taken on a new form,” Nayantara Dutta, head of research at Clean Creatives and lead author of the report, says in a statement. “Instead of making false claims, oil majors are promoting false solutions like [carbon capture and storage] and natural gas, even though they are derived from and create long-term dependence on fossil fuels.”
“While the world is phasing out fossil fuels,” she adds, “oil companies are crafting a narrative that keeps them profitable and in power.”
Chevron, BP, and ExxonMobil did not respond to a request for comment about the report. Shell declined to comment.
How messaging on fossil fuels has evolved
Fossil fuel companies have a long history of misleading messaging. Big Oil knew about fossil fuels’ impact on global warming as far back as 1959, but denied that fact for decades.
They spent years—and billions of dollars—on advertising and PR campaigns that downplayed climate risks and even shifted the blame to individuals, like by introducing the idea of a “carbon footprint.”
Eventually, that changed. Companies began to acknowledge climate change and even positioned themselves as part of the solution.
In February 2020, BP made headlines as the first such company to announce a net zero pledge. (It has since diluted its targets, even outright abandoning plans to cut its oil outputs.) Chevron, Shell, and ExxonMobil soon followed.
Ads across these companies began to include images of solar farms, phrases such as “lower-carbon,” and claims that Big Oil was “advancing climate solutions” and “aligning” their businesses with the Paris climate agreement.
“The latest rhetorical twist” from Big Oil
This era of advertising is defined as one of “climate leadership” in the Clean Creatives report. But it didn’t last.
By analyzing everything from paid advertisements (across Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and television) to ad library archives, press releases, investor communications, and executive speeches, Clean Creatives outlines how fossil fuel messaging has changed in the years since.
From 2020 to 2021, Big Oil companies positioned themselves as leaders on climate. But in 2022, they began focusing on “energy security.”
In 2023, they adopted a “both, and” narrative, the report says, which said fossil fuels were essential to meet today’s energy needs, and that these companies were working on a “lower carbon” future.
From 2024 to today, though, the messaging has centered around fossil fuel dependence, or what Clean Creatives calls “‘you can’t live without us’ messaging.”
“The transition from greenwashing to advocacy of fossil fuel energy dominance is the latest rhetorical twist in the manipulation of the public to accept greenhouse gas emissions as just part of doing business,” Robert Brulle, an environmental sociologist at Brown University, says in a statement.
“Meanwhile,” he adds, “the war in the Middle East shows the folly of the idea that fossil fuels provide ‘energy security.’ The case for renewable energy is only growing stronger.”
