The Story of #ShellFail
There is nothing on earth that's more obscene than what Shell is preparing to do in the Arctic. We've got to do everything we possibly can to stop it.
- Starting on June 6th, Greenpeace and the Yes Lab, together with members of the Occupy movement, began a set of actions that have focused intense attention on Shell’s previously obscure Arctic drilling program. The actions have taken the social media universe by storm. Below is a rough sketch of what has happened and been accomplished beginning with a few tantalizing tweets...
Just kicked out of crazy shell party at space needle will try tweet more pics and vid soon http://pic.twitter.com/xBCalxSIThen a video of events is updated in the dawn hours on Thursday.
Occupy Seattle begins its promotions. A few friends lend a hand.
An @OccupySeattle activist caught this epic screw-up on video last night at a Shell launch party: ow.ly/bqDzF #shellfail
Occupy Wall Street @OccupyWallStNYC #Occupy-infiltrated Shell Arctic launch event a total mess:treehugger.com/environmental-… #shellfail #owsThings really start to spread around midday - the video just beats out a story about a Raccoon knocking out power to 3,500 people to reach the number one spot on Reddit. It receives over 2500 upvotes and at last count had 2514 comments. Thank to all you Redditors out there!
Coverage Explodes!
Dubstep Remix!
Eventually some journalists start catching on.
That viral video of the Shell PR disaster is fake, unfortunately: gawker.com/5916661But Yes Labs adds a new layer by publishing a press release from Shell attacking those responsible for the video. There were some interesting, and lasting, results.
Shellfail hoaxers send hoax legal threat. I fall for it. Pls RT! tinyurl.com/c84uxtrAnd, by Friday morning the video has over 509,000 views and over 1150 comments on youtube.com. Over 7600 tweets have used either the word shellfail or included the words shell party and oil.
And that's when the team began to promote ArcticReady.com.
think #shellfail is over? stay tuned. there is more to come: http://pic.twitter.com/QXnxPn4G
