DETROIT -- CITGO Petroleum Corp. said that is preparing a new, multiplatform campaign breaking this month that will aim to set the record straight as the oil company reels from calls for boycotts in the wake of vociferous anti-American comments from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, reported Brandweek.
CITGO, a subsidiary of Venezuela's government-owned oil company, is developing ads that seek to convey its American allegiance, and its American community of more than 100,000 workers, Jennifer Moos, CITGO's general manager of brand development, told the [image-nocss] magazine.
The campaign will be an enhancement of the company's CITGO story effort that began in June, which sought to brand CITGO with a message of fueling more than your car.
Moos declined to give details on the elements that will be used in the new campaign, which she said will begin this month.
Our marketers and retailers will receive a communications campaign explaining how CITGO is working hard to set the record straight and inform the public of the real facts about the CITGO brand, Moos told Brandweek. We will mail copies of the ad materials that run along with a copy of the press release for all of them to use as they see fit in their communities. Within this mailing will also be a letter that explains the steps we have taken to diffuse the cloud of misinformation that has been set loose by too many of America's media entities.
The company will also give talking points to the owners of CITGO's 13,000 independently owned gas stations that can be used when speaking to the local media, said the report.
As reported in CSP Daily News, CITGO in mid-July announced that it would realign the company's national retail gasoline network footprint. This action will result, it said, in a stronger presence in the East and Gulf Coast regions, and a transitioning from parts of the Midwest, Kentucky, Oklahoma and northern Texas by the end of March 2007. CITGO's shift will result in the debranding of 1,800 stations in 14 states. At the end of this realignment, the number of CITGO locations will be reduced by about 14%, the company said.
In a late-September speech before the U.N. General Assembly, Chavez called President Bush the devil, a cowboy and an alcoholic.
CITGO said that calls for a boycott of its products run counter to the principles of a free-market economy, so cherished by all Americans[and] are being pushed in search of political or economic gain.
The company detailed its U.S. commitment, saying that it was incorporated in the United States; has 4,000 U.S. employees and a network of more than 13,000 independently owned retail locations, indirectly employing another 100,000 people; sponsors many community and charity activities; donates to and participates in U.S. disaster relief efforts; and has relaunched its heating oil program and plans to distribute 100 million gallons of heating oil at a 40% discount in 18 states, potentially benefiting 1.2 million people, including members of more than 200 Native American tribes.
It is clear that CITGO remains committed to its employees, customers, marketing and retail partners and the general public throughout the United States, said the company.
Houston-based CITGO is owned by PDV America Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petr aleos de Venezuela SA, the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
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