Where Advertising Meets Advocacy

Chevron didn’t need another ad. They needed permission to be heard. In Fresno County, where over half the population is Latino and more than 55% oppose fracking, the oil and gas industry faces deep skepticism.

Advocacy groups shaped the conversation around environmental harm, while Chevron’s community investments—especially in education—went unnoticed. Nearly 80% of locals had no idea Chevron supported programs in their own backyard. The gap wasn’t just physical distance between Coalinga and Fresno—it was cultural and generational.

Chevron’s Doers 2.0 campaign celebrated regional grit but failed to speak directly to Latino concerns. Our task was to shift the narrative from industry pride to community progress. We advised pivoting the message into Spanish and Spanglish, keeping “Doers” in English to respect cultural nuance, and centering the story on opportunity through education, not extraction.

The turning point came at Feria de Educación, a trusted Latino-focused event in partnership with Univision. Here, we brought Chevron off the screen and into the community. We developed STEM-focused messaging, created culturally relevant materials, and designed premiums families would keep—not toss. To drive booth traffic, we used local media voices, not corporate ones.

The message was simple yet powerful: Chevron is committed to Fresno’s future through STEM, not just fuel. This was not reputation rescue—it was relevance earned.

For CMOs, the lesson is clear: in politically charged spaces, favorability isn’t bought through impressions. It’s built through participation, cultural fluency, and showing up where it counts.

Left Off Madison specializes in that exact kind of work—where advertising crosses into advocacy, and brands must earn trust before they earn attention.