New PG&E Commercials Focus on Issues That Matter Most to Customers

We know many of you, our customers, see the progress PG&E is making. You know we’re working to make our gas and electric systems safer, cleaner and more climate resilient every day.

But we also know you’re not satisfied. You’re concerned about high prices and skeptical about whether PG&E has made real progress on the issues that matter most.

We want you to know we’re listening; that we care about what you care about, and that we are making progress on those issues. You may have seen the New Year letter from our CEO Patti Poppe outlining how PG&E is focused on our customers’ top concerns. We’re extending that customer-driven approach to our new advertising campaign too. In ‘Open Lines’, customers talk, and PG&E listens.

Open Lines features real customers and real PG&E representatives talking about issues customers care deeply about. Issues like safety, climate resilience, affordability and wildfires.

Even before the terrible events unfolding in Los Angeles this week, you told us you wanted to know what PG&E was doing to mitigate wildfire risk. That’s why in these ads, which start airing today, you’ll meet customers like Andy from Oakland, who told us he wasn’t happy with how PG&E handled the past wildfires in Northern California. You’ll meet Nikki from Fresno who is worried she never sees PG&E crews inspecting the power lines in her hometown.

These are just the first topics we’ll cover in this campaign. Over time, we’ll feature more customers and more subjects, because we know you have more questions. In fact, as part of our Open Lines campaign, we’ve already answered many of the common questions we hear from you on our new website at pge.com/open-lines.

All 28,000 of us at PG&E — from front line coworkers to back-office staff — want to regain your trust. We want you to feel confident that PG&E will deliver the clean, reliable, safe and affordable power you deserve. We hope you’ll feel that from the PG&E coworkers featured in these commercials.

One last thing: we know high energy prices are at the top of your list of concerns, and we want you to know your bills are not going to be higher because PG&E is advertising. These ads are funded from PG&E profits, which means shareholders, not customers foot the bill.

About the author

David McCulloch is chief communications and marketing officer for PG&E.