Full Breakdown
Fossil-Fuel Firms Channel War Profits into Global Advertising Campaigns
By Drooid · · How we work
Advertising Surge Linked to the Iran Conflict
A Clean Creatives analysis released this week finds that fossil-fuel companies have dramatically expanded their public-relations spending in the two years following President Donald Trump’s military actions against Iran. The report documents 802 advertising and PR agencies engaged through 1,321 contracts in 2025-2026—the highest volume recorded since Clean Creatives began tracking such activity in 2021.
Background: Trump-Era Iran War and Energy Supply Shocks
In response to Trump-ordered strikes, Iran temporarily closed the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, creating sharp disruptions to global oil flows. The resulting supply shock, analysts say, forced consumers worldwide to pay higher prices for gasoline and diesel.
Scale of Industry Spending and Profit Gains
Clean Creatives attributes the advertising surge to record corporate earnings. Executive director Laura Ranzato notes that “Shell, BP, and Saudi Aramco are posting their highest quarterly profits in years on the back of the war in Iran and the energy supply shocks that followed.” The Guardian has estimated that the eight largest oil producers collectively earned about $93 billion in the first quarter of the conflict, roughly double the profit level a year earlier.
Official Statements & Responses
Ranzato frames the spending as a “war chest” that will likely fund the next generation of fossil-fuel communications campaigns. Dutta describes the advertising industry’s continued acceptance of fossil-fuel money as “startling,” given the sector’s public acknowledgment of the need for climate solutions.
Verbatim Quotes
- “Shell, BP, and Saudi Aramco are posting their highest quarterly profits in years on the back of the war in Iran and the energy supply shocks that followed,” — Laura Ranzato
- “They can take fossil fuel war profits and help oil majors maintain their social license a few more years, or they can get on the right side of a transition that is already winning on price, speed, and investment.” — Nayantara Dutta, head of research at Clean Creatives
- “All this time, creative work has continued to follow the same themes across different global markets,” — Duttas
These statements underscore a growing tension between lucrative war-driven profits and the climate-focused messaging that many agencies claim to support.