Corporate Greenwashing And Other Questionable 'Green' Ads (VIDEOS)

Maintaining effective public relations and a positive image with the public are important parts of doing business. But for some companies, this task can prove quite difficult when their products and services clash with public and environmental safety.

For example, ExxonMobil claims environmental safety and low emissions in their ads for natural gas fracking and Canadian oil sands operations. Important figures have come out against both hydraulic fracturing and oil sands production as dangerous practices with lasting consequences.

Take a look at the advertisements below. They are some of the controversial examples of potential corporate "greenwashing."

Be sure to check out the coal industry's ads attempting to rebrand coal as "clean" and the other attempts to clean up negative images surrounding polluters.

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Exxon Fracking

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In this ad from ExxonMobil, company geologist Erik Oswald believes natural gas drilling is safe. He says, "When we design any [fracking] well, the groundwater is protected by multiple layers of steel and cement." But reports show that hydraulic fracturing operations in the past have proven themselves to be environmentally destructive and dangerous. Celebrity activists like Deepak Chopra and Mark Ruffalo have spoken out against fracking and Steven Colbert found humor in a drilling company's PR efforts on his show. Filmmaker Josh Fox attacked the fracking industry in his documentary "Gasland." He interviewed a number of families with contaminated, and sometimes flammable, tap water who live near natural gas wells.

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In this ad from ExxonMobil, company geologist Erik Oswald believes natural gas drilling is safe. He says, "When we design any [fracking] well, the groundwater is protected by multiple layers of steel and cement."

But reports show that hydraulic fracturing operations in the past have proven themselves to be environmentally destructive and dangerous. Celebrity activists like Deepak Chopra and Mark Ruffalo have spoken out against fracking and Steven Colbert found humor in a drilling company's PR efforts on his show.

Filmmaker Josh Fox attacked the fracking industry in his documentary "Gasland." He interviewed a number of families with contaminated, and sometimes flammable, tap water who live near natural gas wells.

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I believe them! So Disingenuous

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Comments

[snowmanjny]

02:47 PM on 10/04/2011

I love that the H3 ads are advertising 20MPG as if it is a good thing.

[snowmanjny]

02:41 PM on 10/04/2011

Thank you for proving to me that our country is bought and paid for. We have no future.

[realityCheckInTheMail]

03:54 PM on 10/03/2011

Wow, just wow.

On the one side of the debate you have a wide array of scientists. Hand picked by MIT and Pres. Obama to study shale gas fracking for blue-ribbon panels.

And these survey groups say basically the same thing. Fracking is well understood and (relative other industrial activities we take for granted) quite safe.

On the other side you have "celebrity activists" with no real scientific training.

And when corporate ads mirror the broad scientific consensus, instead of the celebrity activists, that's greenwashing?

Good luck winning elections with that viewpoint.

[vidaurri]

02:09 PM on 10/03/2011

You can see this exxon pipeline commercial on msnbc with the Rachel Maddow Show. They show it all the time there and I do not see it any where else. Black man narrating how the oil sands are going to give us good jobs,cheap oil,etc. Smmoooth. No attention to tar sands protests on those liberal news shows. I guess there are lines that can not be crossed. Do not bite the hand that feeds you? Exxon totally rules.unfortunately. Come on lib tv, more attention to the environment fight and less making fun of the repubs. We already know they are a joke. Show the alternatives that are indeed out there.

[beckjr2000]

10:36 AM on 10/03/2011

There for a minute I though we might get some no biased information! Not to worry.

[demdame1]

10:19 AM on 10/03/2011

Clean coal is a dirty lie