BlackRock CEO Larry Fink trolled with mobile billboard mocking recent ESG comments: 'They are on notice'

FIRST ON FOX: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink might see his own face on unflattering mobile billboards outside his New York City office after irking conservatives who feel he rebranded the polarizing environment, social and governance (ESG) investment criteria in order to push it without consequences. 

Consumers' Research executive director Will Hild, who recently blasted Fink and BlackRock as the "poster children for ESG," launched a mobile billboard campaign calling attention to the high-powered executive’s recent comments.

Fink said on Sunday he’s "ashamed" to be part of the debate surrounding ESG, and insisted the term has been "misused by the far left and far right." When pressed, Fink reportedly declared he believes in "conscientious capitalism" and simply won’t use the term ESG going forward. 

"Since Consumers’ Research started its campaign against woke capitalism and ESG, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has been feeling the heat and now can't get his story straight," Hild told Fox News Digital. "He's pushed a far-left, progressive agenda with other people’s investment dollars for years, got caught, and now he's talking out of both sides of his mouth, launching a transparent effort to rebrand ESG to ‘conscientious capitalism’ so he can continue to push his radical agenda without criticism,."

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"Consumers’ Research launched our mobile billboard campaign ‘Attack of the Memes’ to remind ESG elites like Larry Fink, BlackRock, and others that they are on notice: We are watching, and a change in semantics is not a change in policy," Hild continued. "They need to start serving their customers, not woke politicians."

One of the mobile billboards is a spoof on a famous "Mad Men" scene, but advertising guru Don Draper is replaced by Fink as he presents an idea to help the company. "ESG, but we call it ‘conscientious capitalism," the mock sales pitch states in a clear play on Fink’s recent comments. 

In the second mobile billboard the Consumers’ Research take on a popular meme in which a man wearing a red shirt and white gloves is nervously sweating from his forehead while debating which button to press. The sweaty man is Fink and the buttons state "ESG" and "ESG by a different name." 

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The mobile billboards began circling the block that houses BlackRock in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning and will continue to circle the Hudson Yards headquarters during business hours through next week. 

BlackRock did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Consumers’ Research, which describes itself as a "nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase the knowledge and understanding of issues, policies, products, and services of concern to consumers and to promote the freedom to act on that knowledge," has defined ESG on its website.

It states, "ESG stands for Environmental, Social, Governance and is used as an investment strategy to ‘encourage’ organizations to ‘act responsibly.’ ESG works by analyzing organizations across three criteria — their environmental footprint, their stance on social issues, and internal corporate governance."

The entry claimed that "political activists use ESG as a way to drive a progressive agenda and ideological allies in the business community help push this agenda through economic coercion and ignoring democratic processes."

Hild believes ESG is similar to critical race theory, in that some elements of the polarizing issue are branded CRT, but many others have CRT-associated ideas that aren’t labeled as such. He’s not sure that BlackRock ditching the ESG moniker will actually force the company to make changes to the way it pushes "a far-left, progressive agenda," but promised Consumers' Research will continue to monitor BlackRock’s actions.

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Consumers' Research has put a spotlight on Fink’s company with its 2021 "About BlackRock" campaign that has called the top executive the "architect of woke capitalism" that focuses on ties to China, along with ESG.  

Fink previously responded to ESG critics in a letter to CEOs in 2022.

The ESG movement "is not about politics. It is not a social or ideological agenda. It is not 'woke,'" Fink wrote. "It is capitalism, driven by mutually beneficial relationships between you and the employees, customers, suppliers, and communities your company relies on to prosper … Make no mistake, the fair pursuit of profit is still what animates markets; and long-term profitability is the measure by which markets will ultimately determine your company's success."

Republican leaders on the House Financial Services Committee created a task force in February to coordinate a response to ESG investment criteria.

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Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn, Gabriel Hays, Aaron Kliegman and Thomas Phippen contributed to this report.