Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Disappearing?

In the past week or so I've noticed a steep decline in the amount of propaganda being spewed by Chesapeake Energy. For months it has seemed you could not go through a day without getting multiple messages in multiple forms attempting to convince us that Barnett Shale and Chesapeake Energy are the most wonderful thing to ever bless long blessed Texas.

Yesterday, as I sat outside enjoying the ultra blue sky and the ultra white clouds, I saw at least 6 buses go by. Not a single one was plastered with a Barnett Shale message. Previously it seemed like one out of every two buses said something like "The Children of Texas Thank You Barnett Shale."

I have not seen Tommy Lee Jones on my TV all week long doing his shilling for the Barnett Shale. Yesterday, I noticed the Tommy Lee Jones Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale billboard I'd taken a photo of weeks ago is now gone. So are the other Chesapeake Energy billboards on the section of I-30 I drive regularly. There has not been a full page Chesapeake Energy ad in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram since last week's rather odd one featuring Tommy Lee Jones saying "Texans can live with industry. We always have."

I wonder how many dollars Chesapeake Energy has spent on its propaganda campaign? Those bus signs can't be cheap. I imagine Tommy Lee Jones charges a hefty fee to be a propaganda tool. Billboards are expensive. And then there are those TV ads. I wonder why Chesapeake Energy feels they need to try so hard to convince Texans that drilling into the Barnett Shale is such a good thing?

If we all agree that we all love what Chesapeake Energy is doing to the Barnett Shale, could Chesapeake Energy stop throwing money away on ads and instead, maybe, hold a weekly free beer party in the Fort Worth Stockyards? Now, that'd be the way to win the hearts and minds of Texans.