Exxon Mobil Corp is running television advertisements at the Rio Olympics to showcase its work on clean energy, a high-profile blitz as the company faces pressure over global warming in an intense year of climate politics.
The suite of four ads tout Exxon’s work to capture carbon dioxide from power plants, turn algae into biofuel and develop fuel-efficient cars. Together, they offer a glimpse into the future of a lower-carbon world.
Although oil companies typically advertise at big sporting events, the ads are being run as Exxon faces growing pressure on multiple fronts — from shareholders, environmental groups and state attorney generals — to respond to global warming.
From the opening ceremony of the Games on Aug. 5 through Wednesday last week, Exxon spent US$19.3 million to broadcast ads 233 times in the US market, reaching about 335 million TV screens, according to iSpot.tv, which tracks ad viewership in real time using advanced analytics.
While small in relative terms for a global company, the TV spending is the most by an oil company during the Rio Olympics and the eighth out of corporates overall. Berkshire Hathaway’s Geico was the largest at US$33.5 million.
Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said the new TV ads are part of a longstanding advertising program.
“Our main objective is to provide people with more information about the important role Exxon Mobil plays in safely and responsibly meeting the world’s growing energy demands,” he said. “We want to inform people about the technology and innovation that go into providing energy.”
Exxon’s work on algae dates to 2009. Its carbon capture projects have existed for three decades. Both have been talked about at least once in previous ads, in 2009 and 2011.
Pressure on Exxon over climate change has heated up this year.
In May, the company’s shareholders approved a measure that could put an outside climate expert on its board, marking the first time since 2006 that a shareholder proposal passed.
In March, more than a dozen US state prosecutors said they would probe whether current and former Exxon executives in the past misled the public by contradicting research from company scientists that spelled out the threats of climate change.
Exxon has said it has been unfairly singled out by environmental groups, that it has acknowledged the risks of climate change for more than a decade, and that it supports a revenue-neutral carbon tax.
So long as its ads are accurate it should be playing offense, said John Doorley, a former Merck & Co executive and public relations professor at Elon University who has studied Exxon's past communications efforts.
Exxon should be "as activist as the most ardent environmentalist when communicating about environmental issues and challenges," he said.
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