Can job creation save the oil industry’s reputation?
TEXT OF STORY
JEREMY HOBSON: Today, the president’s Oil Spill commission officially releases its report on the BP spill. Meantime, the oil industry’s trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, has been rolling out a new ad campaign in Washington DC touting all the jobs the oil industry creates.
From the Marketplace sustainability desk Adrienne Hill looks at how an ad campaign like this could impact regulation of oil companies.
Adriene Hill: Do ads about an industry’s economic importance really grab people’s attention? USC professor Ira Kalb says probably not.
Ira Kalb: I don’t think these ads that I’m looking at are really going to do it. Again, because people are going to tune it out. We’ve heard it before and we don’t believe it; it’s got a credibility problem.
Kalb says we’re exposed to an average of 20,000 ads a week. Those that don’t stand out, don’t stand a chance.
But Marissa Gluck from Radar Research says the ads are more about the oil industry playing defense than anything else.
Marissa Gluck: Even if they’re coming under attack for environmental, economic and social disruptions, they can always point to job creation.
And she says this ad campaign is targeting politicians, who made a whole lot of job-growth promises they now need to deliver on.
I’m Adriene Hill for Marketplace.
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