TotalEnergies' campaign of deceit
DeSmog reported how South African PR firm MetropolitanRepublic worked with the Ugandan government to discredit activists
TotalEnergies’ PR firm wins award for campaign of deceit
Clean Creatives SA director Stephen Horn has drawn attention on social media to a far-reaching campaign of lies and “astroturfing” by public relations company MetropolitanRepublic (MR), working for TotalEnergies in Uganda.
Astroturfing means creating fake grassroots campaigns, as MR did to discredit the real protests against TotalEnergies’ planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
Stephen found MR’s admissions of deceit in a “truly alarming” video that the company sent to Uganda’s top advertising and public relations gala, the Silverback Awards, supported by the South African Loeries − and which, appallingly, gave MetropolitanRepublic a bronze award for the campaign.
“The truth is, working with the bad guys means doing bad things,” observed Clean Creatives international executive director Duncan Meisel on LinkedIn. “This is why we need you (PR and advertising agencies) and your colleagues to join our movement to stop campaigns that harm both people and the planet.”
MR is a subsidiary of WPP, the world’s largest advertising agency working in Africa. The campaign was evidently conducted with the Ugandan government, as a Twitter hashtag trended with the help of 70 government accounts.
MR’s award submission also used photos of 15 grassroots activists in Uganda. Eight of those have been harassed, arrested or beaten by Ugandan police.
DeSmog reported that MR engaged a network of social media influencers to post hundreds of times in support of TotalEnergies’ plans to mitigate the impact of the pipeline, even while protestors were being beaten and harrassed.
The publication noted that there was no indication that the campaign or the award submission led directly to any specific incidents affecting the activists, although they occurred simultaneously
EACOP will run from Uganda through Tanzania, and the risks it poses are enormous. It is expected to displace about 100 000 people across the two countries and communities, many of whom rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, have seen their land seized, often without fair compensation.
The pipeline also threatens farmland, key wildlife habitat and coastal waters, and it is seen as a large step backwards in the fight against climate breakdown: the Climate Accountability Institute calculated that EACOP could emit 379 million tonnes of CO2 over its projected 25-year operation, making it a significant contributor to global warming.
On all of these grounds, the pipeline has drawn sharp criticism from human rights and environmental organisations.
In the award submission, the PR agency says it attempted to create a campaign that could “show the haters” the positive things TotalEnergies says it is doing in Uganda and “squash all the negative PR” around EACOP.
“This language is so revealing because it says the quiet part out loud,” observed Stephen. “It makes it clear that the agency and its client, TotalEnergies, have conducted a greenwashing damage control campaign to manipulate Ugandans into believing that a massive carbon bomb like the East African Crude Oil Pipeline is sustainable. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“The African advertising and PR industry should reject fossil fuel clients. Working to promote fossil fuels at this time brings reputational and legal risks and further delays urgent climate action.
“Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change, and we just have to look at the recent devastating floods in Kenya and Libya, and years of ongoing droughts in East Africa, to realise that the region around the pipeline is one of the worst affected. The solution to African energy poverty and development lies in supporting and financing a renewable energy led Just Transition.
“African ad and PR agencies can take the Clean Creatives pledge and join a movement of more than 1,000 agencies globally saying no to greenwashing and yes to a liveable planet.”
Did you know?
Confused about COP29’s main take-aways? Find a Carbon Brief synopsis here. There’s an intro on the new finance pledge, the global emissions stocktake, and the implications of Donald Trump’s upcoming US presidency.
Trump’s election as president of America might devastate global efforts to prevent climate catastrophe, but he won’t stop the green energy revolution, many climate experts say.
An international team of scientists recently supported our cause by calling for divestment from fossil fuels.
Curious about our Planet A Investment Guide? Find the document on our website and watch the full panel discussion at the launch below:
