Media, Greenpeace fooled by fake video of Shell 'PR disaster'
Realistic-looking footage of an embarrassing event gaffe turns out to be a prank.
Realistic-looking footage of an embarrassing event gaffe turns out to be a prank.
The above video was posted to YouTube yesterday, pushed by Greenpeace, and picked up everywhere from the popular BoingBoning and Gizmodo to mainstream media like the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
It was shot at a Shell event at Seattle's Space Needle, celebrating the expansion of off-shore drilling into the Arctic.
Reported Gawker in its exposé:
The company set up a replica of the Kulluk oil rig that would be doing the drilling and invited the widow of the man who designed the rig to symbolically "tap the Arctic" and fill her glass with liquor poured from the top of the model rig. But, whoops, the pump malfunctioned and spewed all over her. Now that's symbolism!
The footage was said to be shot by an Occupy protestor who sneaked into the event.
It certainly seems realistic, from the corporate millling around to the shocked, awkward reactions of the guests and the PR suits scrambling to control events.
One problem: the event never took place.
Shell told Gawker in an email:
Recently groups that oppose Shell's plans in offshore Alaska have posted a fraudulent video that appears to show Shell employees at an event at the Seattle Space Needle. Shell did not host, nor participate in an event at the Space Needle and the video does not involve Shell or any of its employees. We continue to focus on a safe exploration season in 2012.
Anti-corporate pranksters The Yes Men are the likely suspects for the hoax, according to Gawker's examination of website addresses registered by its "organisers".
If The Yes Men's track record is anything to go by, many participants would have thought it was a genuine event.