Shell is under fire from climate activists for promoting fossil fuels to children through partnering with popular video gamers and online youth influencers.
The oil titan had announced a marketing campaign for a new gasoline, named V-Power Nitro+, which it showcased through working with Fortnite creators and paid popular gamers on multiple platforms.
Shell released previews of the promotion gameplay – which includes fossil fuel petrol stations, branded with the company’s logo and colours – alongside trailers of the upcoming ‘Shell Ultimate Road Trips’, showcased on YouTube.
One user commented, “This has got to be the most desperate and pitiful attempt I’ve ever seen at appealing to ‘the kids'”, while another asked, “Will it also have a cutscene where you bury climate change evidence?”
Activist group Media Matters for America revealed some of the oil firm’s youth influencer activity for its campaign, on global streaming platforms such as Twitch, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
According to the non-profit group, digital initiatives included encouraging young players to fill up virtual vehicles at interactive Shell gas stations and post screenshots of the game with the hashtag, #Shellroadtrips.
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Further research by the activist group revealed Shell sponsored live streams of gameplay on Twitch by at least six streamers with a combined 5.5m followers, while three more content creators on other platforms were said to have been paid to promote the campaign in their videos.
These influencers, Media Matters said, have massed a collective following on 1.5 million Instagram followers, 8.5 million on TikTok and 11.6 million on YouTube.
In one specific case, the group revealed a single paid promotion post by a YouTube presenter, going by the username Chica, had a potential reach of 1.74 million people alone.
Photo: comments under Shell’s YouTube campaign video
“Shell’s marketing to young people is another example of how big oil puts profit over people and the planet, even though it has known for decades that the product that it sells is driving the climate crisis,” said Media Matters climate and energy director, Allison Fisher, to the Guardian.
“Regulators in the US and Europe have increasingly cracked down on the fossil fuel industry’s tactic of greenwashing or misrepresenting their products as clean or sustainable.
“This new campaign appears to launder its climate-destabilizing product through popular gamers and social media influencers to its target demographic: those most concerned about the climate crisis.
“It may get by regulators, but it doesn’t make it OK.”
Sunrise Movement executive director of advocacy group, Aru Shiney-Ajay, added: “This is another desperate move by a dying company.”
“Gen Z knows the truth about the fossil fuel industry, and companies like Shell know it. This is just the latest attempt to buy their way to survival.
Shell’s latest contentious campaign follows after global agency Havas’s B Corp status was placed under significant scrutiny following it securing the controversial oil giant’s account last month.
