Would a Chevron Documentary Inspire You?

Chevron's new global corporate image campaign, "The Power of Energy" may aggravate people with its overarching heart-string pulling. (Shot documentary-style with "an earnest voice-over" by indie actor Campbell Scott, the commercials should be dramatic. One of the spots even features a double amputee as a symbol of "the greatest source of energy in the world -- ourselves.") But at the very least, the company's doing a good job getting people involved.

As part of the educational campaign designed to show people oil is, and will continue to be essential, Chevron's enhanced its website, including interactive stories that show "human energy" at work within the company. A separate site, www.willyoujoinus.com allows users to add to conversation threads and even play an interactive game called Energyville which shows the trade-offs of different energy sources in a fake town. To date, 160,000 people have played it. (It would be interesting to know if those people watch "Desperate Housewives" since Chevron made a point of specifying the commercials would not air during that program but instead during more serious shows, like "60 Minutes" and "Heroes.")

Helen Clark, Chevron's manager of corporate brand and reputation said that roughly 10 percent of Americans hate the company and the industry and aren't willing to budge, 10 percent support Chevron, and 80 percent aren't thrilled but are open to learning more. She hopes that by presenting unapologetic commercials that show the company as part of a solution, people will view it more favorably. As AdAge pointed out:

The TV spots...may well remind viewers of Dow Chemical's year-old corporate "Human Element'' push from DraftFCB's John Claxton. That effort has boosted Dow's brand-equity rating 25%, according to Core Brand.

(Chevron image by ezola)