Shell // 2018
Hacked billboards protest Shell’s dodgy PR tactics in climate protest ahead of London AGM
Oil giant Shell’s tobacco-style PR tactics were targeted in a guerrilla billboarding action across London, Manchester and other core UK cities in the run up to Shell’s 2024 AGM in London.
In the clandestine operation, Brandalism activists replaced more than 200 commercial adverts on billboards, bus stops and tube carriages with satirical artworks protesting Shell’s efforts to “fast track the apocalypse”, as shareholders prepare to vote on Shell’s weak climate strategy.
Activists and artists involved in the action said that Shell is using youth marketing, sports sponsorships and political lobbying to maintain the firm’s reputation during their expanding fossil fuel production and recent u-turns on green pledges.
Tona Merriman from Brandalism said: “To quote the tobacco marketers of the 1980s, “The problem is how do you sell death?”. Shell is on a mission to sell its own lethal legacy, using influencers, greenwash advertising, sports sponsorship and political connections to deflect attention from its growing contribution to climate breakdown, which is reversing decades of progress in health and causing death and destruction worldwide.
“Shell’s insidious tactics are straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook, enabled by a toxic coterie of advertising and PR agencies who should be helping to kick fossil fuel companies into history, not boosting their brand.”
Following in the footsteps of Big Tobacco, Shell and other fossil fuel companies are systematically targeting children in its advertising and associating with the clean and healthy world of athleticism.
One poster by artist Camille Aboudaram shows a child’s dummy embossed with a Shell logo, with the slogan “At Shell, we are courting the customers of tomorrow”. Shell increasingly spends its marketing budget to reach younger audiences, including via social media influencers and controversial promotions within the video game Fortnite.
Emissions from fossil fuels produced by Shell and four other top oil and gas firms could result in 11.5 million excess deaths from heat by 2100, according to analysis by Global Witness. Shell alone is responsible for around 1.2% of all global emissions between 2016-2022, with the firm’s contribution to climate change dating back to 1897.
Despite this, Shell CEO Wael Sawan has rowed back on green pledges amid rocketing profits, saying he wants to “reward our shareholders”. In early May 2024, Shell reported first quarter profits of $8 bn (£6.15 bn) and announced a $3.5bn (£2.79 bn) share buy-back.
Ad agency Havas London, who’ve seen backlash from employees and climate activists and threats to their B-Corp status over their work for Shell, are name-checked in one artwork by Matt Bonner which is styled as an advert for a cleaning product, “Havas Greenwash”.
London-based artist Darren Cullen, who designed one of the artworks, said: “As pressure mounts on fossil fuel giants like Shell, they’ve launched increasingly desperate misinformation campaigns against young people, using sports sponsorships, video games and even surfers to try and greenwash their apocalyptic brand.
“But this deceitful strategy is falling flat, as more and more people realise how at odds this marketing is with Shell’s expansion of oil and gas drilling in the real world.“
Several of the artworks, designed by nine artists including Klarissa Katz, Matt Bonner, Darren Cullen and Lindsay Grime, call out Shell’s association with fitness influencers and sports organisations. Shell-sponsored surfer Sage Erickson is shown surfing an sickly multicoloured oil slick in a piece by Michelle Tylicki, while billboard posters installed in Manchester show a cyclist drinking oil, mocking Shell’s controversial sponsorship of Manchester-based British Cycling, which led to hundreds of membership cancellations and the resignation of the cycling organisation’s former CEO.
Another by artist Lindsay Grime is a critique of Shell’s ties to UK politicians and lobby groups, in the style of a Shell recruitment ad, with the text “We’re Hiring!” “Join our growing team of MPs and peers fighting for our future in the heart of Westminster”.
This artwork, and one by Klarissa Katz featuring a skull-faced Shell exec moving the time forwards on Big Ben’s clock face and the words “We’re working overtime in Westminster” were installed on Westminster Bridge Road, and another version reading “Accelerating Collapse #PoweringProfits” just a stone’s throw from the Houses of Parliament.
Commenting on the action, Freddie Daley from the Badvertising campaign, who are calling for a tobacco-style ban on fossil fuel advertising, said: “In recent years, Shell has shown that it has no intention of building a low-carbon energy system and a habitable future. By using sports sponsorship, lobbying and social media influencers, Shell is desperate to maintain its reputation as the firm cashes in on climate chaos. The only way to break this cycle of misinformation and underhand tactics is to bring in tobacco-style restrictions on fossil fuel advertising.”
Shell’s 2023 AGM was heavily disrupted by activists who delayed the start of the meeting, in which investors rejected new targets for carbon emissions cuts. Protests are expected this year amid Shell’s rocketing profits, green u-turns, weak climate strategy and worsening environmental legacy.
Brandalism call for sports organisations, shareholders, local authorities and advertising agencies to reject money from Shell and other fossil fuel companies.
The subverted ads were installed just weeks before Shell’s ‘Make The Future Live festival, which starts on 5th July 2018 in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which aim to publicise the company’s renewable energy technologies to a millennial audience. The artworks highlight the hypocrisy of Shell’s recent PR campaigns promoting itself as a responsible and sustainable company in light of the corporation’s continued fossil fuel extraction, human rights abuses, aggressive lobbying against climate legislation and historic climate denialism.
In London, a number of subverted ads have been posted outside Shell HQ and the National Theatre, a cultural institution that has received criticism for a Shell-sponsored a series of dramas and an ongoing corporate partnership with the company.
Some of the artworks across the four cities feature images of Shell’s #MakeTheFuture sponsored pop stars including Pixie Lott, Jennifer Hudson, Luan Santana, Tan WeiWei, Yemi Alade and Stever Aokim, with the messages “Don’t fall for Pop Star PR.” The series of ads, created by the artisits Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives, Bill Posters, Billy Fisher, Billy Bindley & Tommy Gooch and Phire.
A member of the group, Janette Watkins, 23 from London says:
“Each year, Shell spends millions trying to convince us that it’s a progressive, ethical company. But we’re not buying it. Any investment Shell makes in renewable energy is dwarfed by the billions they continue to spend extracting and burning as much oil and gas as possible. The company uses pop stars and advertising campaigns to appeal to millennials – but we know their real business is wrecking the climate. Shell is not afraid to bribe and corrupt governments around the world to maintain its profits. As one of the artworks states shell is ‘chatting gas’ about being a green company and young people won’t be fooled by their latest slick pr campaign.”
Shell’s Make The Future campaign is designed to engage millennials as fossil fuel companies struggle to recruit younger staff. Shell’s London based festival and larger international associated campaign have drawn criticism and ridicule in the past, with its efforts painted as greenwashing and disingenuous by milliennials concerned about climate change and social justice and human rights.
Several of the artworks installed reference Shell’s destructive corporate practices. As well as increasing pressure for their role in the worsening climate breakdown, Shell is facing more than 50 lawsuits for its involvement in corruption, human rights abuses and environmental destruction. In April this year, Friends of the Earth Netherlands annouced it would be taking Shell to court for undermining the ambitions of the Paris Agreement. Last November, Amnesty International called for a criminal investigation regarding on-going allegations over Shell’s role in human rights abuses carried out by the Nigerian military in the 1990s. They also risk a multibillion doller bill due to earthquakes linked to its gasfields in the Netherlands.
Melissa Faulkner, 24 from Bristol, further justified the action:
“Shell’s PR-spin is outrageous, misleading and dangerous. Behind the pop-star veneer of Make The Future, you find a company complicit in human rights abuses and corruption and that is hell bent on digging up as much oil and gas as possible. We hope that this public art campaign and future actions during the Make The Future event can expose the truth behind their glittery brand. Shell knew about climate change for decades and did nothing.”
Brandalism’s actions today are part of larger effort of more than twenty UK-based organisations to protest and disrupt Shell’s Make The Future event. The group has created a spoof Facebook event page and promises a series of creative and disruptive actions during the four days of the festival. The series of actions are set to culminate in a large ‘The People vs. Shell’ dodgeball game outside the Make The Future event in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Sunday 8th July. Groups involved in this wider effort include members of the Art Not Oil Coalition and several local fossil fuel divestment groups.
Follow @BrandalismUK for updates
