Fossil Fuel Advertising Contracts Hit Record High as Big Oil Pockets Billions From Iran War

The fossil fuel industry is raking in big profits thanks to President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran, and a new analysis finds that it's plugging a sizable chunk of these gains into propaganda.

A report published by Clean Creatives on Wednesday reveals that fossil fuel firms across the world have "engaged 802 advertising and PR agencies to shape corporate and public opinion about their products and services," over the last two years.

Clean Creatives, which has been tracking fossil fuel advertising contacts since 2021, said that the 1,321 contracts it recorded in 2025 and 2026 were the highest total it had ever recorded.

Laura Ranzato, executive director of Clean Creatives, pointed out that the industry's advertising splurge is coming on the backs of global consumers, who have been forced to shell out more money for gasoline and diesel after Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels in response to Trump's unlawful attacks.

"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," Ranzato explained. "This is a war chest that will likely fund the next generation of fossil fuel communications campaigns."

Ranzato also slammed advertising firms for continuing to rake in fossil fuel cash even as the impacts of the climate crisis become more severe.

"With a Godzilla El Niño on the horizon, wildfire smoke, and record heatwaves... agencies face a real choice," she said. "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, said it was "startling" to see the advertising industry lining up to take fossil fuel money "even as it acknowledges the need for climate solutions."

"All this time, creative work has continued to follow the same themes across different global markets," Duttas said, "rather than meaningfully responding to the climate crisis."

The Guardian last month published an analysis estimating that the world's eight largest oil producers raked in a combined $93 billion in the first three months of the Iran War, nearly double the profits they reported over the same period one year prior.

According to the most recent estimate from Brown University’s Watson School for International Public Affairs, the Iran War has now cost nearly $108 billion in additional fuel expenses for the public, averaging more than $823 per US household.