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Some of the biggest contributors to global warming if indirect ones are the public relations firms and ad agencies in the pay of Big Oil and Big Auto. These companies not only market and promote products that consume vast amounts of fossil fuel, they also sometimes promote climate misinformation spread by fossil fuel companies.
But there is now the glimmering of a rebellion within the ranks. Tensions are heating up between the young “creatives” in the world of advertising and public relations and their clients and between the younger generation at the ad agencies and the oldtimers (think of the protagonists in the series “Mad Men”). And some younger folks inside the PR and ad industry are taking things a step further, engaging in a full-court press to get their colleagues in the creative departments at some of the biggest firms on Madison Avenue to pressure their bosses to quit working for fossil fuel companies.
PR Firms Are Being Shamed For Helping Fossil Fuel Companies Green Their Image
Marketing and advertising companies create slick campaigns to make the oil and gas industry look cleaner. Until they choose not to.
As public pressure mounts to tackle climate change, the oil and gas industry has doubled down on its decadeslong effort to position natural gas as part of the solution. But with people increasingly aware of the downsides of natural gas methane emissions that counteract much of its carbon savings, unsafe levels of indoor air pollution, and radioactive waste, to name a few and multiple cities banning natural gas in new buildings, it’s become a tougher sell.