Santos City of… Frights

One way that companies promote their brand without actually talking about their business is by sponsoring community events, or financially contributing to essential services.

Some examples:

QGC fund Gladstone’s Volunteer Marine Rescue

Santos sponsor Gunnedah’s Annual Porchetta Day

Arrow Energy partner with the Brisbane Broncos

Dart Energy sponsor the Hunter Wetlands Centre

Metgasco sponsor Casino Beef Week

This provides an opportunity for people to become familiar with the brand and see the company behind it as being invested in their community. It encourages people to feel grateful for the contribution the company is making rather than feel critical of its impacts.

It’s common practice, and with all the questions communities have up and down the east coast about coal seam gas, it’s no surprise that companies are keen to promote their brand in this way.

This year Santos have sponsored the Brisbane Festival’s “Santos GLNG City of Lights” nightly laser and light show. As a reminder to Brisbane about the industry that Santos operates in, a group of locals got creative. They put the message about the nature of the coal seam gas industry up in lights, for Brisbane to see:

Photos by Stop CSG Brisbane.

This action reminds me of something environmentalist Bill McKibben once said, “We are never going to have enough money to take them on. We’re going to need a different currency, and that currency is our bodies, and creativity, and spirit.”