Fossil fuel companies know that public support is key to their survival – and that losing trust is their biggest risk.
That’s why coal, oil, and gas corporations invest millions of dollars in advertising, sponsorship, and public relations. These campaigns aren’t just about selling their climate harming products. They are about shaping public perception, protecting reputation, and delaying action on climate change.
In other words: they are about maintaining social licence.
”I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies. And I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil fuel advertising.” — UN Secretary‑General António Guterres
Fossil fuel advertising is designed to make oil, gas, and coal feel essential, responsible, and compatible with a safe future.
Campaigns often highlight tiny investments in clean energy while ignoring massive ongoing expansion of fossil fuel production. Images of families, innovation, and nature are used to associate harmful industries with everyday life and social progress.
The goal isn’t just to sell products – it’s to maintain legitimacy and soften public opposition to fossil fuel projects.
Fossil fuel ads rarely show drilling rigs, gas fields, or coal mines. Instead, they feature wind turbines, beaches, forests, and children.
This is greenwashing: making a company appear more environmentally responsible than it really is.
Research shows that greenwashing misleads the public and weakens support for strong climate policies. While many countries are strengthening regulations against misleading environmental claims, fossil fuel advertising often escapes meaningful scrutiny.
As long as this deception continues, communities are denied clear and honest information about who is driving the climate crisis.
When fossil fuel companies sponsor sporting teams, festivals, museums, and community organisations, it creates what researchers call the “halo effect”.
By associating their brands with trusted institutions, companies transfer goodwill from beloved community spaces onto themselves.
Across Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific, fossil fuel companies sponsor:
At the same time, many of these same companies lobby behind the scenes to delay climate policies that would protect the very communities they publicly support.
Sponsorship allows fossil fuel companies to appear like good corporate citizens while continuing to expand production that fuels climate damage.
Removing fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship is already happening around the world — and it works.
Cities, councils, transport authorities, festivals, and cultural institutions around the world have introduced strong limits on fossil fuel promotion, using the same public-health approach that removed tobacco advertising from public spaces.
These policies are:
Easy for public bodies to put in place
A clear, credible climate action
Supported by communities
Legally sound
Effective at reducing industry influence
Removing fossil fuel promotion from public spaces is a practical step governments can take right now to protect communities and support faster climate action.
Fossil Ad Ban is a campaign powered by Comms Declare, working to reduce the social licence of climate polluters and end the promotion of fossil fuels across advertising, sponsorship, and public spaces. Together, we’re shifting both cultural norms and public policy to protect communities from harmful industry influence.
