Shell Climate Change Ads Axed From Facebook

Greg Winterton: 16 November 2020

Extracts

Some Shell advertisements, including for its electric vehicle-charging firm Greenlots, have been removed from Facebook over concerns around transparency of environmental policies and climate change.

Shell’s advertisements – part of rebranding efforts to place emphasis on its renewable energy divisions – were labelled as sponsored, but did not include a disclaimer stating they were paid for by the firm.  read more

Sneaky online censorship move by Shell Climate Change VP John MacArthur

When I revisited MacArthur’s Linkedin page yesterday, I discovered that all trace of his remarks and the adverse comments they had attracted have vanished.

By John Donovan

John MacArthur leads Shell’s Group Carbon strategy, climate change and energy policy and carbon innovation. See screenshot below downloaded on 06 Nov 2020 from here

John is not having a good week.

A few days ago he posted comments on his Linkedin page promoting Shell’s new climate change campaign on social media. read more

Oil giant Shell tries to hand off the climate-change fight to consumers and gets roasted by AOC, Greta Thunberg and thousands more

By Rachel Koning Beals:Published: Nov. 3, 2020 at 8:12 p.m. ET

We welcome the #energydebate, the oil major counters

Royal Dutch Shell PLC had a poll for consumers this week: What habits are individuals willing to give up to cut emissions, it asked.

A stampede of Twitter responses had a follow-up for the oil-and-gas super major: Are you serious?

Some comments, which eventually topped 4,000 as of Tuesday, made note of the less than 200 poll responses (for an account that has some 550,000 followers) to this four-answer query: read more

WHAT SHELL’S CLIMATE CHANGE VP POSTED ON LINKEDIN

By John Donovan

As is plain from recently published news articles, Shell’s use of social media to initiate a discussion about climate change has spectacularly backfired.

The fall out is not limited to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

This morning, I spotted the following postings on linkedin.com by Shell’s Climate Change VP John MacArthur

ohn MacArthur• 3rd+Climate & Sustainability Leader ★ Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering ★ Chairman OGCI Climate Investments ★ Executive Coach1d • 1 day ago Even though the world is going through uncertain times, we know there is an urgent need to tackle climate change. That’s why, at Shell, our ambition is to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, or sooner. We aim to meet our customers’ demand for cleaner energy, keeping in pace with society. #MakeTheFuture#climatechange#netzero2050

GREENWASHING?

So Shell will get out of the primary energy business? Please explain how the world will solve the energy needs over the next 30 years. Eliminating about 12000 mtoe to zero in about 12000 days means 1 nuclear installation per day or 1500 windmills. We need to stop burning fossil and save it for useful stuff. But to reorganise the world in 10 or 30 years just is not possible. With a concerted effort by the world leaders (when was the last time this was achieved?) it will take 2-3 generations and great care is to be taken not to send the poorest 30% of the population into even more dire circumstances. Fortunately we have the time as there is sufficient fossil fuel around. In the meantime I vote your statement as a greenwashing marketing one. But I wish you a fine day and look forward to your explanation!

Wim der Kinderenout of network 3rd+Curator of private telecommunications museum (Self-employed) read more

Shell’s Twitter fail: We want YOU to solve climate change!

It’s Election Day, and that means it’s time to choose people to solve the world’s biggest problems, like climate change. The oil giant Shell, however, wants to know how you are going to fix it.

On Monday, Shell put a poll on Twitter, asking “What are you willing to change to help reduce emissions?” The options: Offset your emissions, stop flying, buy an electric car, or choose renewable electricity.

Of course, that last choice — the most popular response by far — would be made a lot easier if Shell and other oil and gas companies decided to help. If they ditched fossil fuels and pivoted to clean energy sources, we wouldn’t even have a choice: Renewable electricity would become the default for everyone. read more

Shell’s climate poll on Twitter backfires spectacularly

Oil giant accused of gaslighting after asking users: ‘What are you willing to change?’

Damian Carrington Environment editor: @dpcarrington: Tue 3 Nov 2020 13.09 GMT

A climate poll on Twitter posted by Shell has backfired spectacularly, with the oil company accused of gaslighting the public.

The survey, posted on Tuesday morning, asked: “What are you willing to change to help reduce emissions?”

Though it received a modest 199 votes the tweet still went viral – but not for the reasons the company would have hoped. The US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was one high-profile respondent, posting a tweet that was liked 350,000 times. read more

In a surprising turn of events, Shell’s board of executives has officially endorsed a SumOfUs-backed resolution committing the company to take action against climate change.

Still, Shell is lobbying UN representatives to block any kind of real climate solutions in the run-up to the UN climate talks in Paris this year.

We can’t let Shell’s stated commitment to fight climate change be mere greenwashing. If Shell’s executives are really serious about tackling climate change, then they have to stop meddling with the climate talks. And with Shell responding to our pressure for the first time, we’re in a real position to force them to act. read more

Radio 1 DJ Greg James was paid £100,000 by oil giant Shell to front an online campaign which plugged the company’s ‘green’ credentials.

The Breakfast Show presenter, who is paid £229,999 a year by the BBC, is the latest star to be accused of cashing in on their public profiles by moonlighting for corporate firms.

The 34-year-old, who broadcasts to around 5.6 million listeners each Monday to Thursday, fronted a five-part series for Shell called The Great Travel Hack.

The Top Gear-style programme followed two teams of competitors racing from London to Istanbul while using environmentally friendly vehicles. read more

Shell must grapple with its own existential crisis: How should a company that generates most of its profits by serving the world’s enormous appetite for oil navigate a long-term future in which shifting political and economic tides threaten to make fossil fuels obsolete?

BY JUSTIN WORLAND

A peculiar theme park in the Hague celebrates the history of the Netherlands through a series of miniature models. The Madurodam features little canals, old-fashioned windmills, tiny tulips and, amid it all, an homage to Royal Dutch Shell, the oil giant that is the biggest company in the country and, by revenue, the second largest publicly traded oil-and-gas company in the world. There’s a Shell drilling platform, a Shell gas station and a Shell natural-gas field, complete with a drilling rig. The display is at once odd–energy infrastructure in a children’s theme park–and entirely fitting: Shell has been, for decades, one of the most powerful players both in Dutch politics and on the global economic stage. read more

Even Forestry and Land Scotland officials warned this deal was greenwashing, and that is exactly what Shell is doing in adverts in petrol stations across the country.

Rob Edwards on January 16, 2020

Senior Scottish Government forestry officials feared that a £5 million tree-planting deal with the oil giant, Shell, could be viewed as “greenwashing”, according to internal emails seen by The Ferret.

One executive at Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) was worried that the government agency could “get worked over by Shell’s formidable PR machinery”. Another said that the deal was about Shell “reducing the harm that they do, not about them doing good.” read more

The Hague, Netherlands — The Dutch Advertising Code Commission reprimanded Shell on appeal for its misleading advertising at Shell’s Generation Discover 2018 children’s festival.

The Board of Appeals ruled that Shell misled children between the ages of 8 and 14 by suggesting its Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) technology would contribute to a better environment and to attaining UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Board strongly recommended that Shell “no longer make advertisement campaigns in this manner.” read more

By Darren Cullen, artist and writer

When a corporation’s business model revolves around destroying the possibility of human life on earth, sometimes people think that’s not a good thing and they ask if they could maybe not do that. But there’s something about the billions of dollars a corporation can make from engineering the apocalypse that makes it want to not stop, and makes it want to do it more. So instead of not killing everyone, corporations like Shell turn to advertising to make killing everyone seem actually kind of cool. read more

From a Forbes article by Alex Epstein: Shell’s “Footstep-Powered” Soccer Field Will Never Work

Oil giant Shell claims in its #makethefuture campaign that it is promoting renewable energy and helping a poor community in Brazil by bringing it “the world’s first football pitch powered by footsteps.” It has told 1.6 million YouTube viewers and counting that this an idea “that could change the world.”

Don’t believe it.

FULL ARTICLE

Extract from a This is Money/Daily Mail article by Rob Davies published 2 June 2014

BP and Shell have been urged to stop using shareholders’ money to fund a US lobby group that promotes looser gun laws and the teaching of climate change denial in schools. The oil firms are members of the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which greases the wheels of communication between politicians and corporate interests. BP and Shell remain member-donors, prompting criticism from investment institutions who say use of shareholders’ money to fund ALEC is opaque and improper. read more

Introductory flowery rhetoric in a 1958 Shell advert: Shell Guide to LIFE IN THE CORN

“In the growing and ripening stages corn and hay are a sanctuary for wild life which man does not invade.”

The advert concludes with the slogan: “You can be sure of SHELL The Key to the countryside.”

Presumably this was meant as an assurance that it was safe to trust Shell with the environment.  Ironically the use of weedkillers was mentioned in the advert. read more

Shell Most Targeted By Activists Finds Global NGO Monitor

Arun Sudhaman 29 Jun 2012

LONDON–Shell has become the brand most targeted by activist groups, according to a digital service that tracks NGO campaigns worldwide.

Sigwatch, which monitors more than 4,000 activist groups globally, is expanding its service via a new website that provides a greater wealth of data regarding the threats posed to businesses by NGOs, and the issues that are sparking pressure.

The company has found that Shell is the company most criticised by activists in 2012. Shell has also seen the largest rise in activist criticism compared to 2011, along with Monsanto, Apple and Bank of America. Companies that have seen NGO attacks decline markedly over the same period include BP, Holcim and BHP Billiton. read more