This tiny organism with a funny name might someday bring biofuels great fame. pic.twitter.com/qr5yEV2Q0s

— ExxonMobil (@exxonmobil) October 9, 2017

But It is unlikely to be #Volvox which was featured in the ad.

— Tom Hartman (@Tuatara_9) October 28, 2017

I hope Exxon’s scientists know more more algal taxonomy than their ad team. We’ve seen before that they don’t know the difference between Chlorophyte green algae and cyanobacteria (Exxon loves Volvox). Some of the things they’ve lumped together in that video are more distantly related than humans are to mushrooms.

I suspect the ad team was just told ‘algae’, as if that’s one thing. Volvox, as everyone knows, is the coolest of the algae, so naturally they’re going to use Volvox footage.