Social media hoaxes the new weapon in green activism
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It had all the makings of yet another social media “fail” (think #cashforyou and #qantasluxury). A big corporation looking to crowdsource a marketing campaign, before everything goes horribly wrong and the whole thing turns into a PR disaster. Except this time it wasn’t true.
In a series of stunning hoaxes aimed at embarrassing petroleum giant Shell, environmentalist activists Greenpeace created an entire website and social media campaign encouraging users to “take a moment” and create a message promoting drilling in the Arctic. Greenthumbed Twitter users have deluged the site with images attacking Shell.
The website, which was launched in June, has sprung up again in recent days on Twitter, with some users and news sites believing the site to be legitimate Shell campaign. A blog on news site United Press International confessed yesterday that it had been hoaxed by the protest group.
The misguided trust is unsurprising. Greenpeace’s mock “Arctic Ready” website looks impressively authentic, complete with articles about how melting ice caps are providing opportunities to explore the Arctic Ocean.
A Twitter account has been set up to promote the campaign. The hoax has even gone so far as to pretend Shell was investigating the hacked contest.
“Shell Oil is crowdsourcing an ad campaign and hasn’t realized they’re being trolled … See it now before it’s taken down,” wrote @MylesNye.
“Shell just found out why you don’t let the internet write your ad campaign,” tweeted @jamesmasente.
Some of the most popular slogans, which are set on top of images of polar bears, icebergs and narwhales, are below:
Greenpeace, along with ad agency Yes Lab, claimed responsibility for the hoax last month, kicking things off with a “leaked” video of a Shell press conference which goes horribly wrong. That video went viral, receiving more than 750,000 views on YouTube.
“The event was a hoax, and so was the follow-up email and the website with its often hilarious-if-it-wasn’t-true fake Shell marketing copy,” they wrote on their blog.
Shell has been quick to distance itself from the campaign, releasing a statement on its website denying any involvment.
“The video does not involve Shell or any of its employees. The advertising contest is not associated with Shell, and neither is the site it’s on,” they wrote, adding that no legal action would be taken.
Shorter version of this article: Greenpeace lies and misleads. True to form.
Ha! Love the Star Wars reference.
I’m sorry - it’s deceptive (and likely to be illegal for at least stealing the Shell logo) and does Greenpeace no credit.
Jose Ramos Horta once said (and I paraphrase): “when promoting a just cause never lie or exaggerate for the truth alone is enough”.
Greenpeace has become a corporate blight in its own right and seems progressively less interested in the environment and more interested about getting itself headlines.
The oil companies not only deny climate change but fund groups to spread this message, and yet they are also working out how to extract the oil in the arctic as global warming reduces the ice and makes previously inaccessible oil fields viable.
Greenpeace is lying to try to save the world for future generations.
Oil is lying so they can make as much money as they can as quickly as they can.
So who is the most immoral?
@ Mark Duffett take your blinkers off. Shell has form of their own as far as telling lies and misleading. Ever heard of the Niger Delta? Turn a blind eye to murder?
Environmentalists don’t sink to the depths of the extraction industry.
BUGAUP for the Net age. Let there be more of it, esp when it’s well nigh impossible to discern the difference between outrageous lampooning and what some overpaid PR hack thinks works.
Let us all now give praise & remember Tom Lehrer, who quit the comedy circuit to return to maths when reality overtook irony, with DrK receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
see also the Fair Go for Billionaires website
Oh Dave & Mark… please! The Yes Lab pull off amazing hoaxes revealing what companies like Shell truly are.. evil.. truly evil. If you want to worry about using the logo as illegal how about what Shell has done in the Niger Delta over the past 5 decades, their propping up of military dictatorship and invisible hand in the hanging of activists, most tellingly, Ken Saro-wiwa. Props to the Yes Lab, watch both the Yes Men movies and know that the companies that they target deserve every last bit of it. Well done.
@Microseris et al, ever heard of two wrongs not making a right? What you’re really saying is you don’t care what methods are used, or at least they’re OK cos the other mob did it first, so long as you agree with the cause. The end justifies the means. History is replete with examples of the danger of that kind of thinking.
Ultimately this is counterproductive for Greenpeace. Possession of the moral high ground is a crucial asset, and once you’ve lost it it’s very hard to get back.
newstatesman.com/blogs/sci-tech/2012/07/epic-shell-pr-fail-no-real-villains-here-are-greenpeace
Aw, did the poor little oil company get pranked by the big, bad environmentalists?
@Mark Duffett, not justifying anything just staggered at the hypocrisy of your automatic attack on the environment movement at any opportunity given Shell’s shameful history. You are becoming another S. Blake with that type of comment.
I suppose those in the extractive industries need to stick together hey?
@Microseris, I attack the environment movement if and when I think it’s justified, according to its actions. Certainly nothing as automatic as the environment movement’s attack on extractive industries.
Mark Duffer, do you have shares in Shell wreck ? Greenpeace haven’t murdered anyone ? not like some oil companies ? Do you think that Chevron are a nice company too? How are your Gunns shares going ?
MWH introduces relative morality re untruthful Green Peace and untruthful Shell.
Really?, sounds like someone is a victim of Noble Cause Corruption.
In this case, the rights of the punters to the truth are less that the rights of the BS artists to save the planet. The voters, punters, consumers, battlers won’t notice then?
Another free kick to the shock jocks from the politically pure.
Although it may be a clever hoaxe, but Greenpeace is risking their reputation.
Trust is a very valuable quality that money can not buy.
There is no need to provide amunition to your enemies. Notice that Shell defused the situation nicely by taking no action. They will be seen as kind hearted!
I buy and recommend Shell petrol. It goes well. Drive Shell!
Disclaimer; I don’t own any shares in Shell but I’ll keep a close eye on them in case Crikey readers take my advise.
I think it’s brilliant…good one Greenpeace….theres nothing Shell can do but keep quiet.
Mark Duffett, the deception involved nothing more than a virtual kerfuffle, a media blip, and all the electrons that were inconvenienced were going to be diverted anyway - wheres the real harm? I loathe Greenpeace for their street marketers and limelight hogging in supposedly collaborative actions, but many of their slightly-illegal stunts are successful at getting uncomfortable truths into the public eye. Given the dominance of neoliberal pollyannas on our inbred media, thats no small achievement.