When shareholders meet for Shell’s AGM on 18 May, you can bet there will be a lot of talk about their $9.8 billion profits. Less talked about will be the human cost of their activities in the Niger Delta – such as the millions of people drinking polluted water, growing crops in polluted soil and raising children in polluted homes.
We decided to run a high-profile advertising campaign to tell shareholders the shameful truth about Shell. We asked you to share in the shaming of Shell by donating towards the cost of displaying this advert.
You didn’t let us down. By Wednesday afternoon, we’d raised enough to fund a full page ad in a prominent newspaper.
By Friday evening, thanks to 2,104 generous donors we’d reached our next target of £30,000!
UPDATE: Find out where to look for the advert on Tuesday 18 May.
This campaign has exceeded all our expectations – we can now run the ad in a smaller local paper that we know shareholders are also likely to be reading AND take it to the streets on a van outside the AGM. Shell’s shareholders simply won’t be able to miss us!
Help us to spread the word. Ask your friends and family to get involved by sharing the campaign by email or on social networks. Here’s a nifty little tool to make it super easy.
For a reminder why this work to get Shell to clean up its act is so important, read the report.
Excellent, excellent video!!! What response have you had from Shell?
Companies such as Shell, BP. etc. are all of them morally bankrupt; Putting financial profit, and power above their responsibility to their fellow human beings on this our common shared home; Planet Earth. They are also jointly responsible for the buying up and destroying of patents relating to other forms of energy, which have been, and still are being thought about by scientists everywhere.
We now all have to campaign hard for governments and the UN to start legislating for change to bring these powerful oil companies to heel; and soon. Also for Shell to start cleaning up it’s mess in the Niger Delta and start compensating these poor people, treating them with respect and giving them back their human dignity.
i do support you and thanks to all what you did and what you are doing tell now and for all what you will do in fuature ….
ali from bahrain
I had no idea of this catastrophic situation. I don’t know words bad enough for it. I’m with those who think that the tone of the video works – my only worry would be if it is successful and goes out on TV quite a lot of people might think the voiceover is telling it like it is – can I be the only one who stops looking at the telly when the ads are on but doesn’t turn the sound down!
Re paypal, it took me all of two minutes to complete the form. Is life really that much too short?
Well done AI.
Allegra
Hard hitting and raw. The devastation and blatant disregard for human life and nature is abhorrant. It definitely is SHELL SHAME.
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Good campaign, but the Nigerian government, not Shell, executed Ken Saro Wiwa. Reading the background to the history of protests in which he played a key part makes it clear that the government are happy to take Shell’s money, fully aware of the cost to their own people in both humanitarian and ecological terms, yet are unwilling to invest it for the benefit of their own people. (Actually, using the money to “benefit” the people would be a bonus – the government are not even using the money to ensure its people can live.)
Directing the protest just at Shell could make Amnesty and its supporters look naive – this protest needs to go all the way, with demands for the Nigerian government to account for its disgraceful conduct.
Another shocking, sickening but unsurprising example of the potential for corruption and abuse, and of why we must shame such regimes into implementing democracy and human rights. Shell seems to be some kind of scapegoat in the big picture; the Nigerian government must also be made to account for their behaviour.
Sian Harman
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Great idea AI. Thank you!
Protact the human!
Sometimes the humans need a hundreds of years to become wild like animals.
The only solution is the final one, Trust me.
its amazing how terible peaple are trated it makes you want to fight it
How do the big bosses of Shell sleep at night knowing what hell they put people in the Niger Delta through and how the company’s actions are destroying the environment there.
It is damning that a company can so entirely put profit before people and corporate responsibility in 2010.
Peter Davis said:
“Companies such as Shell, BP. etc. are all of them morally bankrupt; Putting financial profit, and power above their responsibility to their fellow human beings on this our common shared home; Planet Earth.”
Well it’s easy to blame the oil companies but they are only fulfilling a demand for the poil from the rest of us. How many people complaining about them drive cars and grumble if the price at the petrol pump is too high? I hear such grumbles all the time. It’s the whole of humanity that is morally bankrupt, not just his one component of it.
‘his’ = ‘this’
I am just about at my wits end with seeing this kind of thing in our world.
Corporatism and monetaryism have got to go.
I highly respect Amnesty and have at times donated when I felt I could. But charity in our world has been reduced to just that, throwing a few donations at a few organizations every month, or year, in order to feel like you care. The actual way in which we impact change is so small when we do not live the change ourselves or tackle the root causes.
Why do we expect Shell to give a damn? Why do we ask them to ‘clean up their act’. These acts are far far worse than murder, torture and rape yet we scold them like a naughty schoolboy.
I appeal to Amnesty International and it’s members to get involved in understanding the core roots of these problems rather than fighting the symptom. This goes straight back to the central banks, fiat currency and how the whole world is enslaved to it. I’m sure you have received a lot of plugs for the Zeitgeist Movement and Venus Project but I really believe we should be working together – the only difficulty being in the unfortunate associations we suffer from which despite how legitamate they are, are rejected by most people.
Still, maybe check us out – we gave an article to many media outlets which can be viewed here:
http://www.examiner.com/x-38938-Milwaukee-Business-Insight-Examiner~y2010m5d13-Zeitgeist-Movement-Press-Release-In-Response-to-the-Oil-Spill-in-the-Gulf-of-Mexico?cid=channel-rss-Business_and_Finance
http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com
http://www.thevenusproject.com
We can, and must work together.
In Solidarity,
(Michael Lee) MarioSavio – UK chapter TZM
Wow! That is powerful! I don’t think I’ll fill up at a Shell station from now on. It’s beyond words in its disgusting, inhumane, aggregious, brazen greed. I won’t be the same after seeing this. What else can we do, I mean, apart from exposing Shell and trying to stop them, is there anything we can do for the people who are suffering there?
Thanks for pointing this out.
I have not bought Shell products for many years now. If I ran out of petrol I would abandon my car rather than use a Shell petrol station. Thank uou A.I. for being our conscience and our eyes and ears.
Am so glad to see this campaign is running so well. However I agree with Sian Harman posting what is Amnesty doing to lobby the Nigerian gov to stop corruption & act towards helping its people? Not just Shell but the gov needs to take responsiblity for human rights abuse. Sometimes it is all too easy to point to the corporate world as it can be shareholder driven but this world is only a symptom of a bigger more damaging picture of hidden corruption in African nations. With more oil being found in other African nations maybe it is time to step up & act on the bigger but harder picutre of gov corruption as being perhapes the real reason for human rights abuse.
Why has my comment taken nearly 24 hours to moderate when new ones have appeared?
Wow! That is powerful!
Yes, yes, Sian. Many Nigerian politicians are corrupt just like British ones (although their corruption is legalised), but there are also honest Nigerian politicians who have fought their best against the tide of immorality. We have to go back THREE previous administrations to Abacha who executed Saro Wiwa. It was a shame on all Nigerians and good riddance to the late executor Sani Abacha. But that was 15 years ago and dispite that Shell are STILL unable to heed their own conscience and are STILL polluting our waters and atmosphere. After taking hundreds of billions of dollars profit from my country a corrupt government is no excuse for shell not to clean up. dear Sian Harman, it is Shell who are polluting, and have the resposibility to extract oil in accordance with the law as they do in other countries. Why do westerners always use corruption as a means of absolving themselves of moral responsibility? There is no excuse for Shell pollution, corruption or not. Chukwunyere
it’s a shame n the thing is that just few r really getting rich !!!
I feel this is the concern of greenpeace and that amnesty should concentrate on human rights abuses perpetrated by humans or join forces with greenpeace to avoid duplication and dilution
I am glad to make a donation to this campaign in memory of Ken Saro Wiwa and the other 8 people who were executed. Shame on Shell and the Nigerian Government.
I thought the video was ‘pitched’ brilliantly!! and that it exposed the ‘caring’, ‘responsible’ image portrayed to the general public by Shell, as a sham. However we must also share responsibility for the environmental and human travesty perpetrated in the Niger Delta, Shell supply the demand we make on them as consumers.
Unfortunately I cant be there to protest on the 18th May, I hope the turn out is good enough for this campaign to get some decent media coverage.
I have discussed this with a friend who has worked in the oil industry in Nigeria. He does not want to work there any more because of the state of the country – mainly to do with issues of safety for foreign personnel working there. He says that this advert is naive in that the biggest part of the problem is the government – or lack of it – in Nigeria. As with much of Africa, there are conflicting interests and large scale corruption. There is an inadequacy in the intentions and the performance of those in power. So, it is not fair just to blame Shell as they are very dependent on the conditions in which they work. As with other posters here in this list, I think that the advert should make clear that the problem is not just Shell but involves the government too.
I have emailed Shell Nigeria, but not had a reply yet. I would be interested to hear what they may have to say about this. I should imagine that they are unable to answer many of the questions because they have to be compliant with the government or else find that another company gets the business instead.
Does boycotting a Shell filling station put pressure on the Nigerian government? I guess not.
I entirely endorse the idea of holding Shell accountable for its actions, however as other bloggers have said the government of Nigeria, and countries buying the oil and therefore indirectly condoning Shell and other oil producers who pollute and destroy environments, should also be held to account and lobbied with as much vigour as this present campaign is directed towards one company.
if after this protest shell did not do any thing about it we will all stop buying shells product.
A very good video – good luck with the campaign. Governments have come and gone – for better or worse – in Nigeria but Shell is a constant. To suggest that the company is only doing what any other would in the circumstances is very shortsighted. They have built up a formidable infrastructure and linked into the country’s politics in a very intimate way. We need to look at what’s fuelled corruption in successive regimes and that means focusing on the resources in the earth and the profiteers who bring it to the surface. Anyway, who says we shouldn’t be challenging the Nigerian Government, too? Let’s keep this particular message as clear as possible. Don’t change the focus.
Does nayone know which paper the ad will be in so that I can buy it?
I want to add to this : if after this protest shell did not do any thing about it. Let Nigeria president Mr. Goodluck send them aways but Total as well that have done the worst harm. This is not only Shell but all these compaines that use Nigeria as dumping bins.
Joyce IROKA
Hi everyone – we’ve been busy finalising details of our activity for the AGM tomorrow! You can find out which newspaper to pick up, where in London to watch out for the ad van and see another video about what Shell’s up to in the Niger Delta here: http://blog.protectthehuman.com/shellagm/
Would be great if we could put a thumbnail of the video on our Facebook so our friends can link directly to the video without going through the AI page.
I second the previous comment – it would be great to be able to share this excellent video on Facebook.
A friend of mine shared the newspaper ad like this and that is how I arrived here. I shared it with another 146 friends in the process and in the five minutes since I did that one of them has shared with another 134 people……
What are you gonna do about that shell ?
just found it on YouTube for those who want to share….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0QTxz5rTxU
Dear Share holders,
How would you feel if this mess was affecting YOUR mothers and fathers, or grand parents, or children?
Would you stand by and quietly profit from it?
I don’t think so. So why should you allow other peoples relatives to suffer? or are you afaid to answer?
Why has my comment suggesting legal action against FT for breach of contract, and/or complaint to Press Complaints Council been removed?
Shell are not blameless but the biggest criticism should go to the Nigerian government. Most of the profit from the oil and gas goes to them. They don’t invest in schools, hospitals, etc. for delta people. The delta people get desperate and steal oil by breaking pipelines – this also allows compensation claims to be made for oil spills. Because of the lack of security Shell can’t clean up easily and stealing oil becomes big business. The new illegal oil field operators don’t care about the environment so the whole thing gets worse.
Agree with Sian Harman’s comment (last comment on 13 may). The government must be targeted too, else it makes Shell look like a scapegoat and Shell will use that to get away with more than they should. Hoping you’ll listen to that, and wishing you the best.
I HAVE ONLY JUST LEARNT ABOUT ALL THAT HAS BEEN GOING ON AND AM SHOCKED THAT A GLOBAL COMPANY LIKE SHELL HAVE NO RESPECT FOR THE POLLUTION MISERY AND I WATCHED IN SADDNESS … I HOPE SHELL AND THE GOVERMENT ARE MADE ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE … BUT WHY HASNT IT BEEN DONE MUCH SOONER ,,,, SURE OF SHELL …. PURE HELL …
It is disgusting, I am actually since long time don’t like that company, they sacking public blood, inhuman, don’t like any more. let’s hate together.
I have no words for these atrocities.