Advertising has contributed to fossil fuel companies’ ‘shifting messaging’, study finds
Advertising and marketing campaigns are delaying the clean energy transition by presenting oil and gas as the only solution for energy security and economic stability, marking a new “gaslighting” phase of communication around fossil fuel production.
This is according to the findings of a report,”Toxic Accounts: From Greenwashing to Gaslighting,” published by Clean Creatives which analysed 1,859 campaign assets from BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron between 2020 and 2024.
It examined paid advertisements across Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram and television as well as ad library archives, press releases, investor communications and executive speeches.
The project underlines how the narrative in fossil fuel campaigns reflects how major oil and gas companies have systematically shifted their messaging strategy during this four-year period, from promoting net zero ambitions to normalising long-term fossil fuel dependence.
Depicting the shift
Notably, while campaigns in 2020 and 2021 emphasised climate targets and energy transition commitments, by 2023-2024 the messaging had shifted to framing oil and gas as permanent and essential to economic stability and national security.
Communication tactics have become increasingly “manipulative and strategic” according to the report and are “aimed at convincing people we can’t live without fossil fuels,” however Clean Creatives highlights 91% of renewable projects are cheaper and more reliable than fossil fuel alternatives.
In fact, 2025 marked the first year renewables overtook coal in the global energy mix.
The report underlines the transition in narratives and exemplifies all four companies to demonstrate the correlation.
In 2020-2021 messaging demonstrated a more proactive approach, with companies embedding sustainability narratives into flagship campaigns, aligning with net zero ambitions and positioned themselves as partners within the transition.
However, come 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and record oil and gas profits, messaging quickly changed toward positioning fossil fuel production as essential to national security and economic resilience.
2023 saw the “both, and” framing where Oil majors advanced the message that fossil fuel expansion and emissions reduction could happen at the same time, promoting carbon capture and storage (CCS) and increased hydrocarbon production.
While in 2024 advertising and marketing campaigns increasingly pushed the message fossil fuels are an “enduring economic necessity,” framing carbon capture and hydrogen technologies as solutions which justify continued oil and gas expansion.
Dangerous amplification
The report makes clear this kind of messaging from marketing campaigns is delaying the clean energy transition and the reason oil and gas has increased is because oil majors and governments are causing “slower adoption of renewable technologies.”
It also highlights how advertising companies “have to follow whoever is winning,” and “the urgency of the transition has gone and it’s all about shareholder value and short-term returns.”
Clean Creatives calls for stronger leadership and more action to be done to recognise this issue.
The study outlines the advertising and PR industry’s role in shaping public expectations about whether the energy transition is possible and who holds power in defining it.
Detailed analysis of UK and US case studies of each of the oil majors highlight despite differences in tone similar narrative shifts of these companies wanting to be “part of the solution” to “you can’t live without us.”
Campaigns increasingly promoted LNG/natural gas, CCS, blue hydrogen, biofuels and renewable diesel as climate solutions in spite of evidence that these technologies remain reliant on fossil fuel extraction and are unproven at scale.
The messaging maintains a convergence between the scientific consensus that a rapid fossil fuel phase-out is required and instead highlights fossil fuel dependence as “inevitable.”
Meanwhile, the report outlines a clear pivot in narratives from net-zero alignment to energy-security when their financial performance improved in 2022.
Nayantara Dutta, head of sesearch at Clean Creatives and lead author of the report, says: “Greenwashing has taken on a new form. Instead of making false claims, oil majors are promoting false solutions like CCS and natural gas, even though they are derived from and create long-term dependence on fossil fuels.
“While the world is phasing out fossil fuels, oil companies are crafting a narrative which keeps them profitable and in power.”
Mounting geopolitical instability
The report comes at a time of increased geopolitical instability and economic uncertainty with the ongoing war in Ukraine and the recent US and Israeli war with Iran, which reiterates the fragility of the global fossil fuel market.
Oil price spikes following and during conflicts underscore the dangers of having energy security being tied to politically volatile regions.
During these times there is increased messaging that frames oil and gas as indispensable to national security, however, the report states it is becoming increasingly clear that expanding domestic energy generation and accelerating electrification are the methods required for nation-states to insulate themselves from geopolitical shocks, and damage to their economises.
This is something energy secretary Ed Miliband outlined as an increasing strategy to protect the UK against exposure to the global fuel markets.