Greenpeace sold fraudulent Arctic campaign against Shell Oil and journalists fell for it

7/19/12, "Journalists beware: Shell Arctic hoax signals move from subtle spin to activist deception," Poynter.org, Jeff Sonderman

"Consider this video posted to YouTube in June, purporting to show an unauthorized taping of a Shell corporate party celebrating its newest Arctic oil rigs. The event goes horribly wrong when a miniature oil well drink dispenser has an uncontrolled blowout all over the guest of honor.

The event falls apart. The videographer is ushered out by security, reinforcing the impression that this was a huge spontaneous embarrassment to the oil company and giving fuel to a #shellfail meme that spread the video around the Web.

Just one problem: None of it is true.

It was the beginning of an elaborate hoax by Greenpeace and a group called the Yes Men.

Not only was the video fake, but journalists who wrote about the video received followup emails (also fake) from “Shell” calling the video a hoax and directing them to a company website. But that Arctic Ready website, it turns out, was yet another hoax.

So, activists produce a fake viral video, get journalists to write about it, send journalists a fake email admitting the video hoax but steering them to yet another Web hoax.

The website poses as a Shell corporate site with believable yet unflattering information about its Arctic drilling activities, including how the company is excited to take advantage of the “tremendous opportunities” of climate change.

Even a journalist who tried to do some due diligence by diving deeper into the site might be misled.

Links to corporate Web pages are diverted to a “temporary site maintenance” page that tells users “our corporate website is momentarily offline while we add new features as part of our new Let’s Go! Arctic campaign. Please check back later.”

There are fake article headlines, a fake Twitter account, a “just for kids” page with an “Angry Bergs” game that encourages you to “help Shell get Arctic oil” by melting icebergs, and an “ad contest” that has users create and share ads about the Arctic.

This week, as Forbes reports, the creators launched a new fake Twitter account impersonating Shell and using a little reverse-psychology by asking people to stop sharing the “subversive” or “negative” ads.

From here on it’s just hoaxes all the way down."...

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7/18/12, "Shell Oil's Social Media Nightmare Continues, Thanks To Skilled Pranksters Behind @ShellisPrepared," Forbes

via Tom Nelson

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