I received several emails the last couple of days from persons who had been paid $100 and a sandwich to sit in on focus groups apparently to evaluate the impact of Chevron’s full court public relations press in Richmond. I’m not sure this is surprising, or even news. It does, however, offer a window into how hard Chevron works to burnish its image in Richmond.
At least they don’t hand out coupons for a pizza and a soda.
Here is participant #1:
so I thought you might be bemused, albeit grimly, by this:
I sometimes get called to participate in survey groups by an outfit called Nichols Research. The one I participated in last night at the Marriot was obviously sponsored by Chevron ... 10 of us were prodded to comment on various aspects of their Richmond Proud campaign .... fliers, concepts and even 30 and 60-sec TV spots.
Sadly, only I and one other person seriously bristled at the notion of Chevron co-opting civic spirit, Rosie's image, images of the shoreline etc, for shameless self-aggrandizement. Most thought that pride boosting is OK and a good thing, that it’s not ethically tainted if it’s being done to buy the public's favor in an election year and EIR period for the refinery modernization.
And another frustrating thing is that my polemics probably aided Chevron in making their PR onslaught even more effective by providing insight into how it looks like to folks that take a dim view of their shtick and corporate brainwashing in general.
Participant #2:
Up at the Hilltop Hyatt Chevron not surprisingly is running a survey on its Richmond campaign. I went and made various notes, thinking they would be helpful to know what people are thinking and what Chevron is looking for.
The panel was an ethnically diverse group of residents, minus two people of public housing, who were excluded at the last minute. They only had 10 seats at the table. I know that they ran at least two groups of 10 apiece. Our group last night Thursday Feb 20th had 5 women and 5 men. This panel was selected by Nickels research. The moderator / interviewer said he was from another firm. I did not catch what firm. Everyone was provided a sandwich and $100 for participating
There was particular focus on women in their thirties / middle age and their opinions, or so it seemed. There were zero Hispanics / Latinos or Asians at the table
Many questions of what people thought of Richmond. I think end goal was trying to define Richmond "pride.” Themes that emerged from the panel and what makes people happy to be in Richmond included: long term residency, fellowship, diversity. The panel all had seen the flyers / mailings / door hangers with the Rosie the Riveter image.
The moderator also asked many questions of the panel about what others (outside of Richmond) thought of Richmond. As well as what the panel had thought of before moving to Richmond. The general conclusion was that Richmond is improving, but still has a ways to go. Nearly all were long term ( 5 or more years) residents. At least four were natives of Richmond. I think most of us also claimed to be a 6 on scale of 1-10 of slightly against Chevron.
Nothing was asked about the opposite/negatives of living in Richmond.
Part two of the campaign as stills used a variety of still images focused around people and locations in Richmond. As well as a 30 second video / TV commercial and a 60 second video commercial. The 30 second commercial was deemed to have too many cuts and not enough explanation. Both were using the same settings / images as the still campaign.
They images included:
- An image (attached) of a student volunteer/teacher? at a computer lab at Richmond High School. The teacher and all the kids were in yellow t-shirts. I don't recall the tag line. The teacher named was Luciano de Rio and not the founding HS teacher of the program Aurelio Garcia. Who is listed in other articles / PR elsewhere. He can be found here:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/luciano-del-rio/15/653/24a
I think it was likely related to the Chevron sponsorship of Project Lead The Way - that according to Chevrons own press release actually was started by Aurelio Garcia, a high school teacher approaching Chevron and not Chevron approaching the high school with an offer to invest / sponsor the program - as seen in this April 2011 press release:
Chevron has bumped up its financial contribution and has a partnership near each refinery nationwide PLTW. https://www.pltw.org/news/items/201310-chevron-and-pltw-announce-national-partnership
Yet one could question the viability / results of the corporate sponsorship as there is nothing listed for Richmond High in the calendar for the California PLTW website
http://www.pltwcalifornia.org/local/index.php
Nor is Richmond High school listed as a participant in the big Chevron Design Challenge at PLTW. http://pltwcalifornia.org/view-content/53/Design-Challenge.html. List of schools participating ( Richmond High did not - so either the Richmond program is lacking resources to do enter or it isn't currently viable enough to create students to compete)
https://sector7g.pltwca.net/publicreport/display_report.php?rptch=MTc=&sl=7&tid=MTAy
I did a search on Chevron at the PLTW website - could be worth looking into more https://www.pltw.org/search?search=chevron
Also I wonder if all the students pictured ( if really at Richmond High) gave permission for the image for endorsing Chevron. Or if it is a recent image.
- Another image ( attached) was of a commercial artist fabricator and his shop at the Richmond Triangle. With a tag line approximately "Art in the Richmond Triangle, Surprised? "
This morning I was able to finally track down the shop and artist: Scientific Art Studio, 500 B Street, Richmond, CA 94801. Ron Holthuysen of Scientific Art Studio - whose best known work the Pacbell Park [ATT] glove, which was made in Berkeley.
Not sure when Scientific Art Studio moved to Richmond - as far as I can tell 2007 or earlier - http://scientificartstudio.com/
http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Gloved-Wonder-Giant-sculpture-at-Pac-Bell-Park-3304529.php
- Another image was of the Ethiopian woman that started the Italian restaurant out by the water, Salute E Vita Ristorante. 3 or 4 of the women on the panel recognized her. I don't recall the tag line.
- A woman engineer at the Chevron plant ( or at least in a Chevron hard hat) in front of a shiny silver round building / thing I don't recall the tag line.
- A possible teacher in a shop with a diverse set of adult students in the background around a table with a tag line about teaching adults / making adults into workers
- Another was a classroom full of workers / with a tag line of teaching current skills or something like that.
Part three of the campaign ( possibly) was a more scientific / architectural flyer of the refinery and what improvements are being made. I just found it online ( after I did the write up below ) :
http://richmondproud.com/documents/Modernization_Fact_Sheet.pdf. http://richmondstandard.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/modernizationmap.jpg
The areas highlighted on the overview photo map were shown to be where the new construction would be and what is being replaced or added. I recall one of the two areas is a hydrogen plant. The flyer stressed facts on the 1,000 construction jobs added, what sort of oil was to be refined ( tar sands was specifically mentioned as not to be used) , and other facts. This image and flyer was met with positive response by all. Much more than the Richmond proud imagery campaign.
The tag line NEWER, SAFER and CLEANER was met with approval by all
The flyer did not state anything about use of higher sulfur oil or increased emissions that I recall
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I just noticed that there is a website : http://richmondproud.com/. Having now read this article this am, I know much more about the expansion. http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/08/07/chevron-california-carbon-trading/
I was the only one on the panel who had read or looked at the website http://richmondstandard.com/ which is also connected indirectly to http://richmondproud.com/. So I guess richmondstandard is a fail
No one was asked about the Facebook ad campaign that I have seen on occasion promoting Chevron.
That’s most of what I got from the panel as well as the $100 ;-)
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