• Brandweek, Thursday, October 26, 2006 12:01 PM

Citgo Oil's new ad campaign is aimed at branding the oil company as a strong and charitable American business. Breaking this week with a 30-second broadcast spot and a print ad, the new creative comes after full-page "public statement" ads that ran last week in several daily newspapers.

The new ads promote the Venezuelan-owned firm's community involvement, heritage and corporate largesse. It took something of a PR hit among some Americans last month after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called George W. Bush an imperialist devil who sought to oppress the world's poor.

"What we are doing comes from a campaign we began earlier this year, the Citgo story, which we had to ramp up to address the situation we were in," says Julie Anderson, manager of brand strategy ad research at Citgo. While the broadcast spot that ran earlier this year featured a tanker bringing oil to the U.S., "that campaign was winding down anyway this month, and we are replacing it with more of the story of our corporate citizenship and our discounted heating-oil initiatives."

Read the whole story at Brandweek »