Chevron We Agree: It's Time You Cleaned Up Your Act

Culture jamming activists have done it again. San Francisco based Rainforest Action Network (R.A.N.), together with famous corporate spoofers the Yes Men, outsmarted Chevron's "We Agree" advertising campaign with an elaborate hoax that fooled some corporate news outlets.

In the early morning hours of Monday, shortly before Chevron let loose a self aggrandizing campaign to highlight "the common ground Chevron shares with people around the world on key energy issues", a fake media release hit the internet. Amongst those receiving the release from mediamail [at] chevron-press.com were climate justice activists and other allies of the Yes Men and R.A.N.

Although savvy political activists in the San Francisco Bay Area recognized the media release immediately to be a prank, corporate media sources including the online news website "Fast Company" fell for it.

Youth climate activists from "It's Getting Hot in Here" pointed out that Chevron spends around $90 million a year on advertising , "and that’s over twice as much as what they spent on their sham clean up of the worst oil-related disaster on earth in Ecuador." The youth group went on to say that , "Today that very public relations bravado and those slick advertising campaigns caught Chevron up in something they try to avoid…the truth."

In a reversal of fortune, Chevron’s million dollar ad campaign getting hijacked is the top news when you google the company name. The clever hoax is getting a lot more attention than the actual advertising blitz.