There's a story on the front page of Reddit and elsewhere on the net that appears to show a woman being covered in oil from a tiny oil rig at a Shell party launching a real-sized drilling platform.
It would be an excellent metaphor for the destruction of the earth by big evil oil if it weren't also an obvious hoax, as a Shell spokesperson just confirmed to us.
It takes almost no digging to uncover the fact that this video that appears to show a launch party for a very real Arctic drilling rig called the Kulluk is fake. While many would like to witness a woman being covered in oil as some sort of poetic event, it's simply not true.
Going beyond the bad acting and even worse party planning — if you've ever been to a party thrown by oil execs you'd know they tend to look nicer than this — there's the source of the video. Why would they invite Logan Price, an obvious Occupy Wall Street activist?
And then there's the fake PR company behind it, the plausibly named Waignwright Shore. DNS info for their website shows it is actually run by anti-corporate group TheYesMen.
Lots of people will believe this video, because they want to believe it, but it simply doesn't hold up to even the most minimal scrutiny.
Here's the statement from Shell.
"Recently groups that oppose Shell's plans in offshore Alaska have posted a fraudulent video that appears to show Shell employees at an event at the Seattle Space Needle. Shell did not host, nor participate in an event at the Space Needle and the video does not involve Shell or any of its employees. We continue to focus on a safe exploration season in 2012."