🕵️♀️ The Climate Propagandist Newsletter #12
How Big Steel sells itself to kids + your climate propaganda digest ⛓️
The Climate Propagandist Newsletter is here — now bi-weekly and packed with the stories, tactics, and tools Big Oil hopes you’ll ignore.
In this edition, we explore how the steel industry is doing what no bedtime story asked for: inserting itself into the minds of children. As always, we have a treasure trove of climate propaganda resources for you to explore. Keep scrolling to the end to find our curated list of recommendations!
This newsletter is proudly supported by Action Speaks Louder.
🔦 INVESTIGATIVE PIECE: How Big Steel sells itself to kids
The steel industry is deeply embedded in South Korea’s national mythology. Once the proud symbol of post-war recovery and industrial glory, steelmakers like POSCO and Hyundai Steel, have long enjoyed respect as legacy institutions. But legacies don't age well in a world on fire.
Today’s youth are more climate-aware, more skeptical of extractive industries, and less inclined to worship at the altar of industrial nostalgia. Faced with this uncomfortable reality, the steel industry has embarked on a curious mission: win back the next generation — by getting to them early.
Since the early 2000s, steel companies have shifted their messaging from steel-as-strength to steel-as-feeling. And in the process, they’ve produced some of the most surreal, emotionally manipulative corporate storytelling in recent memory.
🪑 “But How Could You Sit Without Steel?” — POSCO (2001)
In this eerie early-2000s campaign, POSCO shows children sitting on invisible benches and swinging through empty air, asking: “But how could you do this without steel?” The campaign’s core trick is to erase the object entirely, leaving a ghost-like frame where only steel would make sense.
By embedding steel into moments of innocence and familial bonding, POSCO aims to implant a subconscious emotional dependency on steel from a young age. Steel becomes the unseen force behind joy, safety, and love — basically your third parent.
⚽ “Fill in the Space” — POSCO x UNICEF (2002)
One year later, POSCO’s messaging took a more international — and frankly disturbing — turn. In a campaign developed with UNICEF, children in the Global South are shown playing soccer without a ball. Instead, two brackets float in the air where the ball should be. The copy romanticises children playing with "crushed cans" and "rolled thread." POSCO, naturally, is here to "fill in the space.”
The UNICEF partnership adds a layer of moral laundering. It’s humanitarian branding at its most dystopian: poverty is aestheticised and steel is rebranded as salvation.
🐷 “The Three Little Pigs” — Hyundai Steel (2023)
Fast-forward to 2023, and Hyundai Steel has apparently taken over the Brothers Grimm. In its TikTok-friendly retelling of The Three Little Pigs, the first two pigs predictably fail — straw and wood don’t cut it. But the third pig builds his house with H CORE steel and survives the wolf’s breath.
Natural materials are framed as weak, foolish, and outdated. Only steel offers true protection. It’s a clever reprogramming of a cultural fable to frame industrialism as the only rational choice. A bedtime story brought to you by the steel industry.
🗡️ #FantaSteel — POSCO (2023)
In celebration of its 50th anniversary, POSCO released #FantaSteel — a myth-making campaign to reimagine steel as a sacred, world-saving force.
Set in a pseudo-RPG universe, the ad follows a warrior wielding a glowing steel sword that revives dying forests, banishes shadowy enemies, summons dragons, and quite literally restores the planet.
Yes, really.
POSCO borrows the visual language of video games and fantasy worlds to seduce younger audiences who are otherwise turning away from legacy industries.
Across these campaigns, the pattern is clear. Steel is positioned as culturally sacred, a symbol too revered to question. The result is a disturbing form of industrial storytelling — one that shields extractive practices behind emotional manipulation and cultural nostalgia.
This is not just any industry. Steel is deeply woven into national pride, economic identity, and developmental mythology — especially in South Korea. That’s precisely what makes it so hard to criticise, and exactly why we must.
Steel production is the largest carbon emitter among all heavy industries, primarily because it remains the biggest industrial consumer of coal. But here's the truth they won’t put in an ad: it doesn’t have to be this way. The solutions already exist. The steel sector can decarbonise today by transitioning to renewable energy and scaling green production methods.
🚨 Use your voice to help push Hyundai Motor — one of Hyundai Steel’s biggest buyers — to commit to clean steel.
💼 CLIMATE PROPAGANDA DIGEST:
Don’t miss out on these handpicked resources for climate propagandists. Here’s a curated list of what to read, watch, listen to, and engage with…
📑 Reading material
NEWSLETTER: “Our Climate Needs Mythology”
Loved this one from Solitaire Townsend. She makes the case that climate change needs more than “logic” — it needs stories, symbols, and some serious myth-making. It’s a powerful, fresh take that hits both the head and the heart. Her new newsletter just launched and it’s already full of gems like this — highly recommend subscribing!
This must-read pop culture report unpacks how traditional awareness campaigns — rooted in facts and fear — have hit a wall, and argues instead for embedding climate into the emotional, aspirational worlds of film, fashion, music, and more. A vital tool for storytellers ready to ditch the doom and build new cultural defaults around climate!
📻 Audio content
PODCAST: “Climate Shifted”
Forget tired climate talk — Climate Shifted dives into how climate messaging is actually changing minds (or not). Each episode unpacks the latest shifts in culture, media, and comms with sharp thinkers who know what works — and what flops. In the first episode, our founder Julie Mallat breaks down how propaganda (the good kind) can be a powerful tool in the climate communicator’s toolkit. Add it to your queue!
EPISODE: “Bullsh*t, with Mike Berners-Lee”
A standout episode from Your Brain On Climate exploring the blurry line between misinformation, self-delusion, and good old-fashioned bullshit — and how all of it gets in the way of climate action. For anyone curious about the difference between spin and straight-up lies — or why bullshit flourishes even when the stakes couldn’t be higher — this one’s worth the listen.
📹 Video resources
WEBINAR: “Dismantling Petrocultures”
In case you missed it earlier this year, “Dismantling Petrocultures” is now available to watch on YouTube. Co-created by the Entertainment + Culture Pavilion and The Climate Propagandist, this session explores how the creative industries shape public perception of fossil fuels. It asks: are we imagining regenerative futures, or giving polluters a cultural pass? One of the standout moments: a breakdown of fossil fuel propaganda through the metaphor of a toxic ex.
🎟 Special events
IN-PERSON EVENT: “Culture x Climate Forum at SB62”
As world leaders gather in Bonn for the UNFCCC SB62, the Culture x Climate Forum offers a much-needed space where artists, storytellers, and cultural strategists come together to reimagine climate action. Hosted by the Entertainment + Culture Pavilion, RegenBeings, The Convergence, and The Climate Propagandist, this full-day forum (June 25, 1–7PM at LVR-LandesMuseum) will feature immersive workshops, panels, performances, and networking sessions that place culture at the heart of climate solutions. The Climate Propagandist will also host a dedicated workshop during the day. If you're attending the SBs, this is your chance to step out of policy negotiations and into a space of creative resistance and imagination.
🚄 After gathering in Bonn for the Culture x Climate Forum, The Climate Propagandist crew is continuing the journey — next stops: London (June 26–29) and Paris (June 30–July 7). We’re keen to connect, conspire, and co-create with fellow climate communicators, artists, and culture-makers along the way. Got an idea, a space, or a podcast mic? Email us to partner up.
💌 SPECIAL SHOUT-OUT:
This week’s newsletter is proudly supported by Action Speaks Louder.
Action Speaks Louder is a global force turning corporate climate promises into real action — and we’re so glad to be working with them. Over the past few months, we’ve teamed up to expose the propaganda propping up the steel industry and reveal how companies like Hyundai still rely on coal-based steel while claiming climate leadership.
Action Speaks Louder holds companies accountable when they fall short — closing the gap between what they say and what they do. Their latest campaign calls on Hyundai to transition to green steel powered by renewables — a critical step for a livable future.
Steel might not be sexy, but it’s one of the biggest climate culprits. We’re proud to contribute research, storytelling, and a bit of heat.
Catch more of our findings (and memes) on Instagram — and don’t forget to add your voice to the campaign.
While you eagerly await the next newsletter, why not hop over to our Instagram and LinkedIn pages for extra climate propaganda content? We've got a lot more in store for you there!
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ok wooooaaah — they certainly have imagination but why can’t they use it for good 🥹