Greenwashing at its Finest

Fans of professional golf many know that this week’s tour event is the Valero Texas Open, sponsored by the 8th largest U.S. oil company with revenues of $108 billion.

This itself would be completely unremarkable were it not for the outrageous attempts at greenwashing the company makes in its television advertising.  Apparently, Valero, or at least its ad agency, thinks that its viewers are stupid enough to believe that the company is making an honest effort to replace crude with cooking oil waste that was used to fry potatoes, onion rings, chicken, and the like.

Sure!  We consume more than 5 billion gallons of crude per day, and we’re going to make a significant reduction in that by collecting and refining vegetable oil from fast food restaurants.