We’ve been supporting our friends at Glimpse on their latest campaign drawing attention to the greenwashing tactics of big oil, who are paying influencers to promote their dirty practices.
The truth is, oil companies spend millions in greenwash ads to hide the ugly truth; just 5% of their investment capital is spent on renewables.
Like many young creatives, influencers have, well, influence – and with influence comes power. The world of high carbon advertising is murky and toxic, and if influencers continue to work with oil companies then they seriously risk giving their climate-savvy young followers the ick.
‘Oily mouth’ is an anti-greenwash video from creative duo Alice and Lara as part of efforts to get influencers to reckon with their role in the climate crisis, ditch big oil and use their influence for good.
If Not Now has been supporting on running the paid activity, but when submitting the film to LinkedIn for approval we hit a bit of a roadblock: the ad was deemed “offensive to good taste”. Rather ironic seeing as ads from Shell and BP make it through the net, which given their planet-wrecking ways, we consider to be in very poor taste indeed.
Glimpse founder, James Turner, shares his thoughts on the ad being pulled in this article featured on Campaign.
So, back to the drawing board for version two – vomit removed, as requested, but our greenwashing message remained. Within minutes of submitting an edited version, LinkedIn pulled our ad again.
Honestly, we smell BS. Oil companies are using platforms like LinkedIn to advertise jobs like TikTok managers and other young creative roles but it’s this very same generation who will be living through climate catastrophe thanks to their new green (*cough* wash) employers.
As James highlights in his Campaign article, it’s Shell, not Sally, that we should be banning on our social media feeds.
