It’s early in 2021, but Colorado already has an early contender for the most hilarious PR troll of the year.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) recognized the outdoor apparel brand The North Face for being an “extraordinary customer” of petroleum products last week.
North Face had previously denied an order of branded jackets to oil services firm Innovex simply because the company was part of the energy industry.
In response, Innovex CEO Adam Anderson penned a viral letter to North Face’s parent company VF Corp explaining the different ways oil and gas benefits the world, including brands like North Face that sell petroleum based products.
“To have such a large percent of what they make, probably three-quarters of the mass they ship, is actually our product. So, it’s hard to top the all-in nature of The North Face as a consumer of our product,” CEO of Liberty Oilfield Services Chris Wright told CBS Denver.
COGA is using the North Face snub to promote their new educational initiative entitled “Fueling Our Lives” to educate Coloradans about the benefits of petroleum products.
“I think too often we think of oil and natural gas as just as fuels — something to put in our cars or heat or cool our homes,” said [President & CEO of COGA Dan Haley]. “And, as we’ve seen in recent weeks across the country that is hugely important part of what our industry – supplying affordable and efficient clean-burning natural gas to heat our homes and help power our grid – but we often forget just how many other things we have and enjoy in the 21st Century that are made possible because of oil and natural gas.”