8-17-08 by dugan
Watching ExxonMobil’s ad blitz on NBC during the Olympics, you’d think it was a company dedicated to teaching science, mentoring young engineers and eradicating malaria in the Third World. At an estimated $750,000 per 30-second spot, its 2.5 minutes of ads on Day 1 cost $3.75 million. At that pace the full 19 days would cost $71.25 million, not counting production costs.
Exxon’s total worldwide giving in 2006, the last year I analyzed, was $138 million–less than four-tenths of of one percent of its $39.1 billion profit. Four-hundredths of one percent of its revenue. And much of that wasn’t what you and I or the IRS would consider charitable giving. Here’s the whole story on Exxon, the worldwide Scrooge.