{"id":39919,"date":"2025-03-01T12:37:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T20:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=39919"},"modified":"2025-03-01T12:37:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T20:37:56","slug":"scrub-sad-facts-away-the-yes-men-target-lng-greenwashing-with-new-satirical-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/03\/01\/scrub-sad-facts-away-the-yes-men-target-lng-greenwashing-with-new-satirical-ad\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Scrub Sad Facts Away&#8217;: The Yes Men Target LNG Greenwashing With New Satirical Ad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/still-from-fake-yes-men-lng-ad.png?id=56617118&amp;width=1200&amp;height=400&amp;quality=90&amp;coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C309\" alt=\"Still from fake Yes Men LNG ad.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>An actor portraying an LNG executive celebrates greenwashing in a satirical ad released by The Yes Men on February 28, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0(Photo: YouTube\/Screengrab)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;We are hoping<em>&nbsp;Maritime Executive<\/em>&#8216;s readership are reminded that investing in a fuel that will expedite the rapid decline of life on the planet is not a good look (or a good investment),&#8221; one spokesperson said.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/oliviarosane\">OLIVIA ROSANE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Feb 28, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<a href=\"https:\/\/giving.commondreams.org\/-\/XKQWGZVR\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When readers of&nbsp;<em>The&nbsp;<\/em><em>Maritime Executive&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/themagazine.maritime-executive.com\/editions\/2025\/2025-01-acl-robertson-2\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">peruse<\/a>&nbsp;the magazine&#8217;s latest issue on Friday, they will be in for a surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Page 15 of the magazine displays an ad for GreenCurrent Group, which bills itself as a &#8220;full service communications and marketing agency specializing in supporting commercial maritime operators and energy providers investing in LNG [liquefied natural gas]\u2014the most exciting and misunderstood marine fuel.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But when curious maritime or energy executives follow the QR code at the bottom-right corner of the ad, they will discover that no such company exists. Instead, they will be\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7ZeYVjeZAUQ\" target=\"_blank\">directed<\/a>\u00a0to a satirical video commercial for &#8220;Scrubby Greenwash,&#8221; a giant anthropomorphic green sponge that promises to &#8220;scrub, scrub, scrub sad facts away.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Meet Scrubby Greenwash!\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7ZeYVjeZAUQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The false ad and video are the latest&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theyesmen.org\/hijinks-all\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hijinks<\/a>&nbsp;from underground activist collective The Yes Men, who have used humor and pranks to target corporate wrong-doing since 1996.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We are hoping<em>&nbsp;Maritime Executive<\/em>&#8216;s readership are reminded that investing in a fuel that will expedite the rapid decline of life on the planet is not a good look (or a good investment),&#8221; The Yes Men&#8217;s Natalie Whiteman told&nbsp;<em>Common Dreams<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Yes Men first&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=s6fay3RNXI8\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">made waves<\/a>&nbsp;more than three decades ago with a mock World Trade Organization website that got taken seriously enough to win them an invitation to a real-world conference. Since then, they have used creative deceptions to call attention to various social, economic, and political issues from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theyesmen.org\/project\/pharmagreed\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">high drug prices<\/a>&nbsp;to lack of accountability for the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/newswire\/2009\/07\/13\/beau-pal-water-scares-dow-execs-hiding\">Bhopal disaster<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We need industry leaders, energy producers, and all players across the supply chain to reject LNG as a climate solution.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of their past actions have&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theyesmen.org\/projects\/murder-is-bad\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">targeted<\/a>&nbsp;fossil fuel companies and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theyesmen.org\/project\/huskyfriends\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">raised<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/theyesmen.org\/project\/emoji\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">awareness<\/a>&nbsp;about environmental issues such as the climate emergency and corporate greenwashing. Over the past year, they have begun campaigning around LNG specifically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve always been in favor of generally keeping living things still alive, and methane is going to make all of that not happen much faster,&#8221; Whiteman said. &#8220;We thought hey, that&#8217;s not cool at all.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;LNG is a massive issue,&#8221; Whiteman continued. &#8220;and the industry is pouring enormous resources into convincing the public that LNG is a green fuel when in fact LNG is methane, with a warming capacity 80 times more powerful than CO2, that leaks across practically every step of the supply chain.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To tackle this issue, the group has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/scrubbygreenwash\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">taken<\/a>&nbsp;Scrubby Greenwash on tour to major cities around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How did they come up with the character?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Greenwashing is the process of scrubbing inconvenient facts and science away to protect the reputation of a company,&#8221; Whiteman explained. &#8220;It&#8217;s a process of sanitizing their image with marketing, and so a delirious looking slimy sponge seems like the sensible choice.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whiteman said that Scrubby was &#8220;building up a rabid fanbase all over the world&#8221; while &#8220;targeted companies don&#8217;t seem nearly grateful enough for the services he provides in protecting their image.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group also&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fENsiD8DyFs\">crashed<\/a>&nbsp;the World LNG Summit in Berlin in December under the guise of a Royal Caribbean executive. They managed to hold a few one-on-one meetings and earn a panel invitation before being found out, in an adventure that will be fully shared in a documentary to be released next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their focus on LNG parallels the work of more traditional climate activists, who have been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/opinion\/the-fight-to-stop-lng-expansion\">sounding<\/a>&nbsp;the alarm about its planet-warming potential and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/biden-climate-legacy\">urging<\/a>&nbsp;governments to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/opinion\/gulf-south-japan-lng\">curb<\/a>&nbsp;the buildout of new LNG infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, following the election of U.S. President&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a>, there has been backsliding on the regulatory end, with Trump&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/trump-platform-on-energy\">declaring<\/a>&nbsp;an energy emergency to stimulate more fossil fuel extraction and lifting a Biden-era pause on new LNG export approvals. On Wednesday, the European Union also&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/eu-lng-plan-trump\">announced<\/a>&nbsp;a plan to fund new LNG exports, which was interpreted by some as a concession to Trump&#8217;s pro-fossil fuel agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Yes Men&#8217;s latest fake ad targets not governments, but shipping and LNG companies directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/the-false-ad-placed-by-the-yes-men-in-the-maritime-executive.png?id=56617131&amp;width=700&amp;quality=90\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><small>The false ad placed by The Yes Men in The Maritime Executive.<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the video ad, a table of men in suits sit around a table in &#8220;liquefied natural gas headquarters&#8221; as a news item announces, &#8220;A new investigation has revealed that cruise liners powered by liquefied natural gas produce more global warming than those powered by regular marine fuel. That&#8217;s because methane leaks at every point in the supply chain, and gas traps 80 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The newscaster continues, &#8220;That&#8217;s bad news for everyone, but especially for the luxury cruise lines, like Royal Caribbean, which have been marketing themselves as green,&#8221; at which point the camera pans over to a Royal Caribbean representative in a captain&#8217;s uniform. &#8220;If the industry doesn&#8217;t act fast, this information could hurt their bottom line.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s at this point that the executives pick up the phone to call in the assistance of Scrubby, who comes bursting through a brick wall Kool-Aid style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whiteman said The Yes Men chose to target&nbsp;<em>Maritime Executive&nbsp;<\/em>and Royal Caribbean in particular because &#8220;the trade media is complicit in propagating the greenwashing that protects LNG&#8217;s false reputation as a clean fuel. And the fact that Royal Caribbean is marketing their LNG-powered mega ships as sustainable is a criminal untruth, when they could be investing in zero-emissions alternatives or other efficiency measures.&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, Whiteman told\u00a0<em>Common Dreams,<\/em>\u00a0&#8220;We need industry leaders, energy producers, and all players across the supply chain to reject LNG as a climate solution. It has proven to be anything but.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/oliviarosane\">OLIVIA ROSANE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Olivia Rosane is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/oliviarosane\">Full Bio &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An actor portraying an LNG executive celebrates greenwashing in a satirical ad released by The Yes Men on February 28, 2025. \u00a0(Photo: YouTube\/Screengrab) &#8220;We are hoping&nbsp;Maritime Executive&#8216;s readership are reminded that investing in a fuel that will expedite the rapid decline of life on the planet is not a good&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/03\/01\/scrub-sad-facts-away-the-yes-men-target-lng-greenwashing-with-new-satirical-ad\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39921,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39919\/revisions\/39921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}