Looking Green: A Rhetorical Analysis of Greenwashing in Fossil Fuel Advertisements

The world’s leading oil and gas companies knew the impact of fossil fuels on climate change as early as the late 1970s. Despite this knowledge, the fossil fuel industry proceeded to invest money in publicly denying the link between burning fossil fuels and climate change. There is increasing hindrance by American consumers towards fossil fuels as the consequences of their extraction and production become more glaring and evident in the environmental destruction and consequences of climate change across the globe. Growing environmental concerns about the impacts of fossil fuels, like oil and natural gas, from the general public resulted in mass efforts by the fossil fuel industry to combat these concerns. These efforts include multi-million dollar advertising campaigns designed to communicate specific messages regarding fossil fuels to regain declining support from American consumers. Rhetorical analysis using cluster criticism and ideological criticism of fossil fuel advertising campaigns uncovers the rhetorical strategies of greenwashing to show how the fossil fuel industry uses advertisements to counteract growing environmental concerns and reinforce hegemonic ideologies. Greenwashing deliberately creates confusion among American consumers about the impacts of fossil fuels on the environment and contributes to greater attempts by lobbyists to limit legislation and discredit science.