Chevron Punked With 'Yes Men'-Produced Attack Ad

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/10/chevron_punked_yes_men.php

An apparent Chevron ad campaign decrying the oil giant's years of polluting Third World locales and pledging to change its ways was the spitting image of the real thing. But Scrooge-like changes of heart are only for the movies. The San Ramon-based oil giant has, in fact, launched a touchy-feely ad campaign based on the theme "We agree." But It turns out the most provocative parts of the "We Agree" campaign were a clever hoax that fooled a number of media outlets.

Chevron is the latest target of The Yes Men, a group of "corporate raiders" who shame businesses via pranks of this sort. Here's how it works:

Chevron's actual ad spiel can be found at http://www.chevron.com/weagree/. But the parody ad is at the almost -- but not quite -- identical address of http://chevron-weagree.com/. That hyphen makes all the difference.

Instead of moving ads testifying to the oil giant's efforts to support renewable energy and act as a global good neighbor, Chevron apparently castigates itself for years of environmental misdeeds in the Third World.