How fossil fuel ads manipulate us

On this week’s podcast, Tracy and I watch and analyze fossil fuel ads—and we do it with Nayantara Dutta, head of research at Clean Creatives and the lead author of their new report analyzing nearly 2,000 fossil fuel ads from 2020 to 2024. (ICYMI: We covered that report for Tuesday’s newsletter. Check it out!) You can watch/listen at the top of this newsletter, on Youtube, or on any of your podcast players. But if you’re short on time, here are some of the most common ways fossil fuel ads try to manipulate and mislead us: By using the phrase “lower carbon.” It sounds so nice doesn’t it! But “lower” carbon is not “low” carbon. It’s also not “no” carbon. And it’s definitely not “net zero.” It just means “lower than before.” How much lower than before? And are they really doing it? Who cares! Stop asking so many questions! By using the phrase “carbon intensity.” Oil companies often talk about lowering their “carbon intensity.” But that doesn’t mean they’re lowering their overall carbon emissions. An oil company can lower the carbon intensity of a barrel of oil, while still increasing its overall carbon footprint because it’s drilling more oil than ever before. And for the most part, that’s precisely what’s happening. This is a fancy marketing term designed to mislead. By playing up the benefits for local communities. Ads often feature "regular" people—workers, families, neighbors—to make oil companies seem like pillars of their communities. What these ads quietly leave out: the fishing communities, cancer alley residents, and others harmed by the very offshore drilling and refinery operations being celebrated. This form of lying is called “paltering,” the practice of “using statements that are technically true, but also leave out critical information in order to mislead people.” By using guilt. One ad we watched reminded us that offshore oil workers are out there on the platform every single day, including holidays, keeping your lights on while you sit at home. The implicit message: how dare you criticize us? It's emotional manipulation dressed up as a human interest story, designed to make us feel personally indebted to the oil industry rather than asking hard questions about it. By tying oil to “new” technology like AI. This is the newest trick in the playbook, and it’s an attempt to position old, dirty fossil fuel infrastructure as new, clean, cutting-edge innovation. But the pitch doesn't hold up. We don’t need fossil fuels to power AI. And renewables are already cheaper, more efficient, and more reliable than the fossil-fuel-derived alternatives the industry keeps proposing. And more! We’ll also be releasing some fun bonus content tomorrow. Make sure you’re a paid subscriber to get it! (Full PDF transcript) Emily Atkin Welcome back to Heated. Today we’re gonna watch some fossil fuel ads. Now you might not think you’ve seen many fossil fuel ads, but trust me, you have. They are everywhere. They’re on TV, they’re on social media, at airports, during the Super Bowl, in museums, and sometimes even in classrooms. In 2024 alone, the fossil fuel industry spent nearly $7 billion on public relations, creative, and media, according to a report from Clean Creatives. And the funny thing is these ads are almost never trying to sell us a product like gasoline. They’re trying to sell us a story, an idea, a feeling. So what exactly are the stories and ideas that the fossil fuel industry wants stuck in our heads? And are they true? That’s what we’re gonna suss out today. And we’re gonna do it with Nayantara Dutta, head of research at Clean Creatives. Nayantara is joining us from Mumbai, India. Hey, girl. Nayantara Dutta Hey, thanks for having me. Emily Atkin Tell us a little bit about Clean Creatives and the work that your organization does. Nayantara Dutta So Clean Creatives was founded in 2020 and we are a global campaign group which works specifically in the advertising and marketing industry to help creatives and agencies cut ties with fossil fuels. There’s a long history of disinformation through fossil fuel advertising, so we encourage creatives to be on the right side of history and pledge to drop oil. Emily Atkin You’re here today because you’re the lead author on a new report that analyzed almost 2,000 fossil fuel ads from 2020 to 2024. That’s a ton. We covered that report exclusively in the heated newsletter a couple days ago, but. Tell us briefly, what was it like watching all of those ads? Nayantara Dutta My gosh. It’s both hilarious and painful when you actually know the science behind fossil fuels because ads are intentionally lying to us about what’s actually happening. I think that we just see new sides of deception every time. It’s like watching a toxic relationship unfold. Emily Atkin Oh my gosh, all right, Well, we wanna get into the nitty gritty about what you found in the report, but we figured the best way to do that is to actually watch some of the ads that we’re talking about. My producer, Tracy, pulled a bunch of them together and she’s going to run them as we go. So Tracy, whenever you’re ready. Tracy Wholf Sure. So we’re going to start with a 2021 ad from, this is from Chevron called “Progress.” [AD DIALOGUE] Keep taking steps forward. The future of energy is lower carbon and to get there, the world needs to reduce global emissions. At Chevron, we’re taking action, tying our executives’ pay to lowering the carbon emissions intensity of our operations. It’s tempting to see how far we’ve come, but it’s only human to know how far we have to go. Emily Atkin This sounds like a company that is so committed to the planet. If I knew nothing about fossil fuel companies and just about climate change at all, would be like, ‘Chevron’s in this with me.’ Do you see that lady running up the stairs? She’s just like me. She cares about her health and so does Chevron. Chevron cares about my health. This is like very powerful messaging, I feel like. So what are we looking at here? Like, what is Chevron trying to do with this? Nayantara Dutta This is from a campaign Chevron published from 2020 to 2022 called It’s Only Human. And Chevron has called itself for years since 2007, the Human Energy Company. And it’s actually hilarious because Chevron is most famous for its human rights abuses. It has poisoned local refugee populations living close to one of its refineries. It has polluted the Amazon. And due to the backlash towards their human rights violations, Chevron worked with an ad agency called McGarry Bowen, which is now Dentsu, since 2007 to develop this campaign which positioned them as the human energy company. Tracy Wholf Sorry, I just have to ask. This is obviously an ad that feels very targeted for a US audience. Do you see this messaging globally? I mean, is this being translated in languages all across the world for Chevron? Nayantara Dutta It is. And one thing we’ve noticed in our global research is if you look at the global south, the tone and the narrative behind advertising campaigns changes when it’s being localized. So the imagery of the cute baby and focus on poverty, focus on bringing electricity to rural communities is emphasized in the global south. We call it purpose washing. It’s one step beyond green washing because they’re aligning themselves with these CSR efforts when actually the very communities they’re helping are the ones that are also suffering as a result of their pollution. Emily Atkin Can we talk about some of the specific claims that they made in this ad? I wrote down a few phrases that seems like they were worth picking apart a little bit. One of them is "Wwe believe the future of energy is lower carbon.” That’s not low carbon. That’s not no carbon. That’s not net zero. That’s, we believe the future of energy is lower carbon. Lower carbon doesn’t actually mean shit, does it? They [also] said, okay, we’re taking action tying our executives’ pay to lowering the “carbon intensity” of our operations. But lowering your carbon…