Washington Post reporter Steven Mufson noted in a September 28 Business section front-pager how new advertising campaigns are "Recasting Big Oil's Battered Image."
Within his article, Mufson brought in advertising critic and NPR host who injected his own political beliefs about oil companies like Chevron (emphasis mine):
"What these ads, like all oil company ads, do is accentuate the positive and don't mention the venality, the environmental impact and overarching greed that is at the bottom of their businesses," said Bob Garfield, a TV ad critic for Advertising Age.
[...]
"The theme is 'don't demonize us because, after all, we are just people like you,' " said Garfield, the Advertising Age critic. "And I say they are people like me except that their fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders is to . . . gouge me at the pumps."
Garfield is blowing smoke when he talks about price gouging. Numerous studies have shown time and again no systemic price gouging by the oil industry, including the latest study by the Federal Trade Commission.
Yet that doesn't stop Garfield, who, far from keeping his politics to himself in his writings at AdAge.com often betrays his liberal distrust of business -- witness his snide cracks about "exploited" Wal-Mart employees here -- or conservative Republicans.
Indeed, last October in the heat of the 2006 congressional campaign, Garfield practically alleged racism on the part of Senate candidate Bob Corker and RNC chairman Ken Mehlman for an ad that leftists insisted carried racist undertones -- although that required intentionally reading them into the ad itself. What's more, Garfield seemed to suggest his belief that the ad was designed to shore up GOP appeal among bigoted white voters:
The factual background is that Congressman Ford went to a Playboy-sponsored party at the Super Bowl, if you can imagine anything so awful. There he apparently was witnessed in proximity to an attractive WHITE WOMAN. Ford, of course, is black. Hence the message of this ad for certain white Tennessee voters: "Meet y'all at the lynchin' tree. This boy wants to sully your pretty little girl."
Incredibly, RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman denies that the ad has racial or sexual overtones. He is either ignorant of two-plus centuries of American racial history, or he is a liar. Either way, Corker needs to repudiate the ad run on his behalf, and Mehlman needs to resign.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
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Comments Policy
Time to walk on your own
September 28, 2007 - 12:20 ET by JDWEthanol once required extreme big government assistance simply to survive but now it's a growing industry. The free ride is over and it's time to start being responsible for answering questions: Do biofuels increase 'global warming', damage soil in foreign countries...?
JDW
CFR: Chung, Riady, Hsia, Trie, Huang, Hsu, Paw... Who's looking?
Damage soils in foreign countries?
September 28, 2007 - 12:28 ET by RJHow about right here in America? Corn, a shallow-rooted crop, encourages soil erosion. Because it's subsidized, it's replacing other deeper-rooted crops.
But stopping subsidies won't cause biofuels to survive in a free market. Ethanol is mandated in many states, forcing a market that wouldn't otherwise exist.
ladies and gentlemen, the MSM show
September 28, 2007 - 13:17 ET by third eye"What these stories, like all liberals, do is accentuate the negative and don't mention the venality, the environmental impact and overarching greed that is at the bottom of their businesses,"
I have zero sympathy for Big
September 28, 2007 - 13:49 ET by BruzillaI have zero sympathy for Big Oil. You want evidence of price gouging? Why are we paying the exact same amount for a barrel of oil that is pumped in a war-torn nation, with kickbacks to local politicians, then shipped around the world on multi-million dollar tankers, as we are for oil that's pumped in Texas or Alaska? Where else in our economy do we do this? No where! I pay 1/4 as much for oranges that are grown down the road in Indian River as I do for those grown in, and transported from, California. And rightly so, since the cost of transporting the fruit is factored in. Yet for oil, we pay the same, and by same I mean we pay whatever the highest price oil is. It amazes me that people who would never think of paying import prices for domestic products are so quick to think this is fine for oil companies!
As for oil company ads, I've had a big issue with the "Back to the 70s" ads that they've been running. They started running as soon as Congress started looking at price controls and new taxes, and follow the line of "remember the 70s... gas lines, short supplies, blah, blah, blah? Tell your Congress person to fight efforts to bring back these horrible things!" These ads run on Hannity and Limbaugh's shows everyday, and have been running for months. But in all my days, I've never once heard a Big Oil ad saying "call your Congress person and tell them to allow more refineries to be built and offshore drilling to be expanded." This is why I have no trust in oil companies who say they're powerless in the face of environmental groups and lefties.
Brazila.......hold on thar, boy....
September 28, 2007 - 15:06 ET by JayTeeRemeber last year, when BIG OIL was invited to testify in Front of Congress...?
What did Congress do ?
They did nothing.
What did BIG OIL ask for ?
They asked for "Access".......They wanted to Get to the Oil, so they could be BIG OIL...because "little Oil" can't build 20 billion $$ refineries followed by waiting 20 years before you get a return on your money.
Meanwhile, China is getting access in the Gulf of Mexico with the Mexico drillers...and we sit around with 500 years worth of shale Oil in Colorado/Wyoming, while Canada becomes the # 2 Country in Oil Reserves by opening up 15,000 square miles of Oil sand in Canada. In Canada, they take Black oily sand, and take out the Oil and put back Clean Sand.
Give the Oil companies ACCESS.....Congress asked, the Oil companies answered.
I'll close with a Question..see how Oil literate you are..How long did it take the Oil companies to Build the Alaska Pipeline ? ?
What good is a Free Press, if it is a False Press ? David Foote GoE
RES TANTUM VALET QUANTUM VENDI POTEST
September 28, 2007 - 18:54 ET by UnsaneThis has got to me the most devoid-of-economic-sense post I have seem in some time.
"Price-gouging" does not exist. Just because you think you are entitled to gas at a quarter a gallon, doesn't mean that is what the price will be.
It amazes me that you think that the laws of economics apply to everything, EXCEPT oil. The oranges you cite do not require worldwide searches for sources. (We know where the oranges grow; we are a teensy bit more challenged as to where to find the oil. And the geologists do not work for free.) Oranges don't require as much labor, and really, how smart do you have to be to pluck oranges from trees, and to maintain the grove? Oranges are also grown in realtively easily accessable places. Prudhoe Bay is a pain in the ass to get to, much less get oil OUT of.
Oranges also are not taxed by every conceivable entity around, just because.
I could go on and on, but I'll cut it off here by saying the more I read comments like yours, the greater is my sympathy for oil companies, who have to put up with people who do not know one damn thing about the oil industry, sitting aroudn whining for a free lunch. Besides, you need to fully master the tagline. That is the key to ALL economics...including oil.
Res tantum valet quantum vendi potest.
Res tantum valet quantum
September 28, 2007 - 18:59 ET by JasonCRes tantum valet quantum vendi potest
That's what my dad told me after I came home dejected because my baseball card collection, with an aggregate value of $5,000 according to the 2005 baseball card price guide, had fetched me a mere $380.
He said it in Latin too.
"He was, and is yet, most likely, the wearisomest, self-righteous
pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible to rake the promises to himself
and fling the curses on his neighbors." -Emily Bronte
"What these ads do, like
September 28, 2007 - 17:21 ET by MikeB"What these ads do, like all media company ads do, is accentuate the negative and don't mention the venality, the environmental impact and overarching greed that is at the bottom of their business." There you go, Bob I fixed your quote for you. This may come as a shock to you Bob, but all businesses, whether a sole proprietership, a partnership, or a multi-national corporation are in business for "greed", for self-interest. Even the non-profits are in it for a buck.
As for someone being gouged at the pumps, you should do some research into who makes what on a gallon of gasoline. It is the government, Bob, who makes the most money on a gallon of gasoline. The government makes about twice as much on a gallon of gas than the oil companies do. Twit.
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx." Ronald Reagan