Big Oil’s Deceptive Climate Ads

The report provides a detailed appendix of advertising campaigns from four major oil companies—BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell—from 2000 to 2025. It identifies the agencies and professionals involved and describes the strategic goals of these campaigns, which often focused on rebranding the companies as environmentally responsible, promoting natural gas as a 'bridge' fuel, and shifting focus toward individual carbon footprints and low-carbon technologies like algae biofuels and carbon capture.

• BP's 'Beyond Petroleum' campaign, launched in 2000, involved a major rebranding that included changing its name from 'British Petroleum' to 'BP' and adopting a helios sunburst logo to 'lead favorability' for a decade.
• BP is credited by a former creative director as the first major company to introduce the 'carbon footprint' concept into common usage through its 'BP on the Street' campaign starting around 2006.
• BP's 'Possibilities Everywhere' campaign, launched in January 2019 with a $100 million budget, aimed to convince audiences to 'seek re-appraisal of BP as a company connected to the future.'
• Chevron's 'I Will' campaign (2008-2009) focused on energy efficiency and conservation, utilizing an 'Energy Generator' calculator on its website to show how individual actions could lead to energy savings.
• Chevron's 'We Agree' campaign (2010-2014) was strategically designed to mimic the language and imagery used by protesters against big oil companies.
• ExxonMobil's 'Unexpected Energy' campaign (2018-2019) used a 'Plants' creative concept to compare carbon capture and storage (CCS) plants to biological plants, aiming to shift the perception of the company from being 'part of the problem' to 'part of the solution.'
• ExxonMobil's 'School of ExxonMobil' series (2018-2019) targeted younger audiences and 'Skeptical Independents' to counter the image of the company as a 'scary, evil corporation.'
• The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) censured ExxonMobil in 2008 for claiming natural gas is one of the world's cleanest fuels, and again in 2011 for misleading claims that algae biofuels 'help solve the greenhouse problem.'
• Shell's 'Profits and Principles' campaign (1999-2003) was explicitly not designed to sell products but to reassure the public of the company's commitment to sustainable development.
• Shell's 'Make the Future' initiative (2014-2020) used high-profile partnerships, including music videos with Jennifer Hudson and a footstep-powered soccer field in a Rio de Janeiro favela, to target millennial audiences.
• The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) censured Shell in 2007 for misrepresenting the scale of projects involving the use of waste carbon dioxide to grow flowers and waste sulphur to make concrete.

APA

Center for Climate Integrity (2025). Big Oil’s Deceptive Climate Ads. https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/Campaigns-Big-Oil-Climate-Ads-2025.pdf

Chicago

Center for Climate Integrity. Big Oil’s Deceptive Climate Ads. 2025. https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/Campaigns-Big-Oil-Climate-Ads-2025.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for Climate Integrity |title=Big Oil’s Deceptive Climate Ads |date=December 2025 |url=https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/Campaigns-Big-Oil-Climate-Ads-2025.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforclimateintegrity2025big, author = {{Center for Climate Integrity}}, title = {{Big Oil’s Deceptive Climate Ads}}, institution = {Center for Climate Integrity}, year = {2025}, month = dec, url = {https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/Campaigns-Big-Oil-Climate-Ads-2025.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }