The oil company, my Instagram friend

Oil companies are sneakily promoting their brands with Instagram influencers, said Molly Taft in Gizmodo.com. “Cherrie Lynn Almonte is an influencer with 192,000 Instagram followers” whose posts typically “follow standard travel-influencer protocols.” Then there was one “interspersed with shots of her and her fellow road tripper filling up at a Shell gas station.” Former masters of “the art of quiet persuasion”—Exxon Mobil once “underwrote several seasons of PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre—fossil fuel giants are now hitting up social media. Phillips 66 recently launched a campaign called “Live to the Full” with parenting-focused Instagram influencers whose ads have featured “kids snacking on pastries” purchased at a gas station. Recently, Shell paid a photographer to tell his 74,000 Instagram followers about its efforts to “reduce our carbon footprint” over a reel “of kids playing in the snow.”