In Columbus Circle, New York, Royal Dutch Shell offered tourists and New Yorkers a chance to taste the “last iceberg in existence”, after recently receiving preliminary approval by the Obama administration to drill for oil in the Arctic.
Under the slogan “first taste of the last frontier”, passersby were disgusted with the company’s insensitive PR stunt, unknowing that the shell ‘employees’ were actually members of the political activist group the Yes Men. The group had decided to prank the people of New York city to highlight the hazards and moral issues of Shell’s Arctic drilling plan.
The video featured is from Rolling Stone, who had exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the Yes Men and their project. In the video, Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum first plan their mission before leading the team to the streets of New York. The stunt was performed in advance of the June 12th opening of their new documentary, The Yes Mean Are Revolting.
On the day, as temperature ran hot, people gathered around the cart awaiting their free icy treat; however, once they caught sight of ‘Shell’s’ slogans— “The Future Never Tasted So Sweet” and “Narwhals Are the Unicorns of the Ocean. We Provide the Rainbows”— and were informed of the ‘origin’ of the ice, people quickly became upset and began voicing their disgust and anger.
One passerby, Robert Vest, told Rolling Stone, “They’re making snow cones out of an iceberg? How fucking insulting is that?” When he was later informed of the true intentions of the stunt, he laughed and said “I thought, ‘What assholes. But maybe these people are stupid enough to do something like this. What an epic fail for their PR department.'”
The entire event truly helped to enlighten the public to Shells Arctic antics, sparking anger and a determination within the public to take action against the corporation.
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This Article (The Yes Men Prank New York: Impersonating Shell and Giving Out ‘Last Iceberg’ Snow Cones) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.
good way to get sued be a huge company
“good way to get sued by a huge company”
Suing them would be a good way to have even more eyeballs at the stunt and thus the point it’s making. Translation: They won’t sue.
These guys have done bigger and better stuff but it’s good to see them active again. The once forced Dow Chemical to make a statement that they were not going to give any further compensation to the thousands of people in Bhopal, India after the yes men had appeared on the BBC and said that they were designating tens of millions of dollars to help the victims.