…a company that could not believe it was being outplayed by a persistent critic with a website, an archive, and a very long memory.
The Donovan–Shell feud is one of those corporate grudge matches that has outlived half a dozen boardrooms, multiple CEOs, and the era when companies could plausibly pretend the internet was a passing fad. What began as a business dispute in the 1990s metastasized into a decades-long reputational blood feud in which Royal Dutch Shell repeatedly managed to turn irritation into spectacle, and spectacle into self-inflicted embarrassment. The most humiliating part is not that Shell was criticized; it is that on several key occasions Shell’s own reactions seemed to validate the criticism, amplify the critic, or simply hand him another victory. Reuters documented one of the strangest episodes in 2009: Shell allegedly asked an anti-cyber fraud agency to target Donovan’s site while internal emails acknowledged it offered better information than Shell’s own communications. (shellnews.net)Background
The Donovan story starts in a conventional corporate dispute and ends somewhere closer to performance art. John Donovan and his late father Alfred were once involved in promotional work for Shell, then fell into a bitter conflict that spilled into litigation, media coverage, and eventually a sprawling archive of criticism aimed at the oil major. Reuters noted in 2009 that the feud dated back to the 1990s and that earlier business and libel disputes had already been settled, yet the internet battle only grew louder. (shellnews.net)
Global Witness has published a serious press release about Shell, Equinor and their new North Sea joint venture, Adura. This is the ShellBot version — same documents, different tone.
Shell to the Lifeboats: North Sea Crisis, Corporate Vanishing Act, and the Smell of Crude Regret
Posted by John Donovan 8 April 2024
Posted by John Donovan: 16 Feb 24
Posted by John Donovan: 2 November 2023
Posted by John Donovan July 5, 2023
Posted by John Donovan 3 July 2023
Global Witness
