The campaign is designed to draw the public's attention to ExxonMobil's position on global warming and it features a version of the Esso logo in which the two central letters have been replaced with dollar signs.
Stickers featuring this altered logo have then been fly-posted all over Europe with the aim of raising awareness and encouraging a consumer boycott of Esso service stations.
The oil giant is suing Greenpeace for 80,000 euros for reputational damage and an additional 80,000 euros a day for the continued misuse of the logo.
"French law protects your trademark and logo and your employees and customers would not understand if we did not take action to prevent its misuse, said an ExxonMobil spokeswoman.
Greenpeace is by no means unique. The previous decade witnessed a variety of groups practising brand terrorism in order to advance their respective causes. Ecological protesters occupied McDonald's stores, ran protests throughout the 90s and produced a series of badges proclaiming 'McMurder' and 'McGreed' in the burger chains trademark red and gold font. By transforming a target company's brand identity, a subculture can gain the attention of the mainstream public and this allows it to then make its point.
Brand terrorism is actually not aimed at the individual consumer, but rather the media and the mass-audience that this coverage delivers. The media cover incidents of brand terrorism because nothing makes better report-age than a big brand in trouble. Subcultural groups are aware of this and in an act of marketing jujitsu use the very size and strength of their opponent against itself.
The biggest single factor in the success of brand terrorism, however, is the reaction of the company being targeted. McDonald's threatened to take the brand terrorists to court, resulting in the infamous 'McLibel' trial and thousands of pages in the press about the court case and the alleged misdeeds of McDonald's. Brand terrorists are fully aware of this and attempt wherever possible to provoke the corporation into responding.
Ironically the ExxonMobil saga demonstrates very clearly where to find cutting-edge marketing, guerrilla marketing, integrated marketing communications, strategic thinking, clear brand positioning: this has been a marketing master-class from Greenpeace. I have no idea whether ExxonMobil is at fault in its approach to global warming, but I do know that Greenpeace thinks so and now, so do you, because you are reading this.
And Greenpeace now has ExxonMobil at checkmate. The more the oil giant responds, the more the media will report it and the more awareness Greenpeace will generate. It will be fascinating to watch ExxonMobil's response.
It has excelled in marketing in the past, but it now faces a new kind of threat. Watch this space.
_1.jpg)
.jpg)