Oil companies and the PR industry aim to demobilize environmental movements and blame consumers. Here’s what organizers can do about it.

Besides reading the article linked shortly below here, also see my further examples below that link:

The PR industry aims to demobilize environmental movements — here’s what organizers can do about it

Public relations poses distinct threats to environmental movements, but activists are becoming more savvy and developing new forms of resistance.

https://www.nationofchange.org/2021/04/22/the-pr-industry-aims-to-demobilize-environmental-movements-heres-what-organizers-can-do-about-it/

More information:

Decades ago – when the beverage industry wanted to replace refillable bottles (for soda pop, beer, milk, etc.) with disposable containers – the beverage industry DECEIVED THE PUBLIC by shifting responsibility for the waste problem onto the public.  While the beverage industry VASTLY INCREASED disposable containers that people would throw away as litter in public places, the beverage industry invested in an anti-littering campaign that BLAMED CONSUMERS instead of taking responsibility for the waste it was generating.

One example that middle-aged and older Americans still remember is the TV and magazine ads showing a traditional Indian crying about the litter that was abusing public spaces.  That ad campaign was part of the campaign by the beverage industry (and the disposable container industry of plastic bottles, aluminum cans, etc.) to AVOID THOSE COMPANIES’ RESPONSIBILITY for vastly increasing waste by shifting the blame to individual people who litter.

 

Oil company propaganda softens its climate denial and emphasizes blaming consumers

We need to understand the oil companies’ strategies for how they are fooling the public with their propaganda.  Then we need to devise smart strategies to help the public understand what the oil companies are trying to do – and debunk their propaganda schemes.

 

New Study Decodes ExxonMobil’s ‘Modern’ Climate Misinformation

Where it’s no longer credible to deny climate change, the fossil fuel giant puts the focus on ‘risk’ and blame on consumers, in echo of tobacco industry PR, researchers find.

https://www.desmog.com/2021/05/14/study-decodes-exxonmobil-modern-climate-misinformation/?utm_source=DeSmog%20Weekly%20Newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1498 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org