Conveying the sense-making corporate persona: The Mobil Oil “Observations” columns, 1975–1980

•The public relations value of advertorials is examined by exploring Mobil's “Observations” columns.•Mobil used the columns to project a corporate persona that attempted to help Americans make better sense of the world.•Attempts to convey the corporate persona should be accompanied by public relations helping the corporation to first make better sense of the world and then act constructively.

Since at least the early 20th century, the corporation has arisen in the US as an entity that attempts to help individuals make sense of the world through the use of public relations. Public relations scholarship, however, tends to focus on how corporations primarily articulated their worth through touting how the products and services they offered were constructive to society. This study, however, through a review of Mobil's “Observations” advertorials that ran from 1975 through 1980, reveals how a corporation attempted to build an influential persona by offering a corporate personality, that is an empathetic fellow traveler who is also believable and aspirational. This examination of the presence of the corporate persona points to lingering concerns, especially regarding how well the corporation can realize and communicate its corporate character in a world that is increasingly complicated by the rise of non-traditional information sources (e.g., social media), and interlocking, systemic concerns (e.g., climate change, economic/ecological sustainability). Public relations can assist in better understanding such factors so that the corporate persona can act in ways that benefit stakeholders and society.