How an ice cream truck is educating SXSW attendees on Big Oil’s fossil fuel greenwashing

Chevron's Climate Catastrophe Crunch.

That’s just one of four flavors that will be sold from an ice cream truck that Ben & Jerry’s and Clean Creatives have designed to educate SXSW attendees this weekend on Big Oil’s fossil fuel greenwashing. 

The industry activist group’s latest campaign also targets PR agencies that support major oil corporations, including Edelman, BCW, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, as well as holding companies WPP and Dentsu. Other agencies are also listed on a Clean Creatives microsite about the campaign.

The other ice cream flavors include Shell's Half Baked Net-Zero Claims, Exxon's Crimintal Deceit, and Aramco's “Wow, That's Dark” Chocolate.

The flavors each call out a specific polluter and the agencies that “enable them to mislead the public about climate change,” according to a Clean Creatives statement.  

Christopher Miller, head of global activism strategy, said Ben & Jerry’s was approached by Clean Creatives with the idea. 

“Our model of corporate activism is very much rooted in the idea of using the tools that we have as a for-profit ice cream company and putting them in service of [our] partners and allies,” Miller said. “This [activation] is a great example of that model.”

Ben & Jerry’s partners with Cone Communications and Spitfire Strategies, both of which do not work with fossil fuel companies, according to Miller. 

“We wanted a creative and tasty way to reach people who are having a very busy week and make sure they understand fossil fuel companies are primarily responsible for climate change and that their advertising and PR campaigns are misleading,” he added.