When social media goes horribly wrong: The ‘Shell Let’s go’ campaign

Imagine you’re a multinational oil company.

Then, think about the general reputation oil companies have, not forgetting the BP spill.

Now, think about a marketing campaign to draw a lot of attention to the industry.

Did you come up with a build-your-own-caption campaign? One that allows lots of sharing on social media?

No?

Well someone did. (Editor’s note: turns out it was a Greenpeace guerrilla campaign.) Someone very clever has decided to draw attention to the drilling activities of Shell.

But it wasn’t Shell.

What this social media campaign has done is draw attention to the exploits of the oil industry in a very interesting way.

And what has resulted is a PR nightmare for Shell.

Is it a real Shell site?

Apparently not, but it looks and sounds official. I thought it was. So, have many others.

What should Shell do? (WSSD) They can’t close the site down, as it’s not theirs.

How do they respond?