Before many Pennsylvania movie-goers settle in for Matt Damon’s film about the fight over natural gas drilling, they will see a message from the
energy industry offering “straightforward facts” about hydraulic fracturing.
The unorthodox, on-screen pre-buttal of “Promised Land,” which opens nationwide today, is part of an industry campaign aimed at heading off criticism about
the process, also called fracking. Instead of direct attacks, which the industry used against the documentary “Gasland,” they are trying to paint Damon’s movie as derivative, condescending and cliched.
Taken together the industry campaigns -- at Pennsylvania movie theaters, on
a website and using social media --underscore efforts to combat negative perceptions about the practice, deal with persistent questions about the risks of pollution and head- off calls for more oversight
and regulation.