On Thursday, filmmaker Adam McKay tweeted out a question, with a video: “Has anyone seen this Chevron commercial?” The one-minute and 40-second “commercial” begins with the beautiful shots of nature we have come to expect from big business interests like fossil fuel companies and agricultural farming giants: waves breaking on rocks, a waterfall, a newborn baby.
The voiceover begins: “We at Chevron believe that nothing is more precious than life.” A shot of a woman, eyes closed to feel the breeze in a long, tall grass field as a storm whips up the wind comes through, and takes up the screen. An underwater rainbow-colored explosion of life at coral reefs, a super-slowed close-up of a hummingbird dipping into a flower on a sunny day: “And the most precious life of all is the dead kind ...”
A dark landscape fills the frame. Lighting strikes spread beautiful streaks of light across the horizon. “ … that has been compressed for hundreds of millions of years, under massive rocks,” a child playing on a slip-n-slide, “until it magically becomes oil.”
And it gets better and better, darker and more honest. Enjoy your weekend!
RELATED STORY: We need to drastically rethink what recovery looks like as the climate crisis worsens
And before you begin to think that this video is ham-fisted, just remember how fossil fuel executives talk about the politicians in their pocket, like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, when they are just talking.
YouTube Video
This week on The Downballot we check in on Pennsylvania, where Republican Doug Mastriano has called for "40 days of fasting and prayer" to save his ailing campaign for governor; dig into ad spending numbers that show Democrats airing far more spots because they aren't relying on super PACs; circle back to the J.R. Majewski stolen valor scandal, which prompted the NRCC to cut him loose; and recap the dispiriting results of Italy's general election, which saw the far-right win for the first time since Mussolini.
Embedded Content
The voiceover begins: “We at Chevron believe that nothing is more precious than life.” A shot of a woman, eyes closed to feel the breeze in a long, tall grass field as a storm whips up the wind comes through, and takes up the screen. An underwater rainbow-colored explosion of life at coral reefs, a super-slowed close-up of a hummingbird dipping into a flower on a sunny day: “And the most precious life of all is the dead kind ...”
A dark landscape fills the frame. Lighting strikes spread beautiful streaks of light across the horizon. “ … that has been compressed for hundreds of millions of years, under massive rocks,” a child playing on a slip-n-slide, “until it magically becomes oil.”
And it gets better and better, darker and more honest. Enjoy your weekend!
RELATED STORY: We need to drastically rethink what recovery looks like as the climate crisis worsens
And before you begin to think that this video is ham-fisted, just remember how fossil fuel executives talk about the politicians in their pocket, like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, when they are just talking.
YouTube Video
This week on The Downballot we check in on Pennsylvania, where Republican Doug Mastriano has called for "40 days of fasting and prayer" to save his ailing campaign for governor; dig into ad spending numbers that show Democrats airing far more spots because they aren't relying on super PACs; circle back to the J.R. Majewski stolen valor scandal, which prompted the NRCC to cut him loose; and recap the dispiriting results of Italy's general election, which saw the far-right win for the first time since Mussolini.
Embedded Content