โ€˜All of Our Tricks Workedโ€™: Spoof ExxonMobil Ad Nails Just How Easy Itโ€™s Been for Big Oil

A new parody ExxonMobil advertisement mocks humanity for letting Big Oil get away with causing one of the biggest existential threats of all time.
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A protester holds a sign about the climate change denial of ExxonMobil at the protest Our Generation, Our Choice in Washington, D.C., November 2015. Credit: Johnny Silvercloud (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

This article was first published in Common Dreams and is reprinted here with permission.

A new parody ExxonMobil advertisement released Tuesday by a group founded by Adam McKay โ€” the Academy Award-winning writer and director of the blockbuster doomsday climate comedy Donโ€™t Look Up โ€” mocks humanity for letting Big Oil get away with causing one of the biggest existential threats of all time.

โ€œThereโ€™s a world we all want to live in again. A world where the air is pure and crisp and clean and fills your lungs with joy. A world where you can drink water from any river or creek and your house will still be there tomorrow if it rains,โ€ the narrator of Yellow Dot Studioโ€™s latest parody video says in the two-minute clip. โ€œHere at Exxon, we believe in that world, and weโ€™re working hard to make sure that our customers believe that we believe in that world.โ€

โ€œWe understand the road has been bumpy, and we havenโ€™t always done the best we could,โ€ he says over footage of the Exxon Valdez disaster, in which more than 10 million gallons of crude oil were spilled in Alaskaโ€™s Prince William Sound in 1989.

The voice-over continues:

โ€œSure, our own scientists accurately predicted climate change 60 years ago. But we didnโ€™t want you to know about it. Thatโ€™s why we spent billions on ads and media manipulation covering it up, then we rigged the government so leaders in both parties would do our bidding, and yes, we did everything in our power to block clean energy tech so we could keep force-feeding you oil via expanding global infrastructure, monstrous vehicles, and disposable plastics and chemicals that donโ€™t go away. Ever.โ€

The video follows the recent conclusion of a bicameral Senate investigation into Big Oilโ€™s decades of spreading climate disinformation and obstructing a green transitionโ€”after which lawmakers called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate fossil fuel giants. There is also a nascent movement urging state and local prosecutors to go after the oil and gas industry for climate-related deaths.

โ€œAnd yes, every now and then you squawk about how evil we are, but then we drop gas prices a nickel and you shut right back up,โ€ the narrator says. โ€œDo you have any idea how easy it is to get you off our backs with a little bullshit about your responsibilities to the planet? About your carbon footprint? Pretending plastic recycling actually makes a difference?โ€

โ€œYouโ€™re letting us get away with it, you dumb bitchesโ€ he adds mockingly. โ€œAll of our tricks worked. The world is a burning, out-of-control charnel house. The last generation to die of old age has already been born, and you still let oil executives freely show their face in public.โ€

โ€œWeโ€™re just one company but youโ€™re 7 billion people,โ€ the video concludes. โ€œGet off your asses and do something, you fucking peasants!โ€

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