Small victories can be important. The fossil fuel industry has been running new public relations and propaganda campaigns as divestment and public sentiment grow ever more suspect of them. The strategy isn’t new. It’s been used to tie cigarettes and sugar laden cereals to cute cartoon characters that can win young hearts and minds.
Shell Oil had a global marketing partnership with the much loved creative toy corporation Lego. It lasted ten years and sources say 16 million shell-branded Lego sets have been given away or sold at gas stations in 26 countries. That is, until Greenpeace launched a video with a lovely Lego Arctic environment slowly enveloped in a black oily ooze set to music. It included an online petition that collected over a million signatures. Three months later Lego dropped the partnership.
Scientists agree there is already too much oil in known reserves to ever be burned without catastrophic climatic changes. Drilling in the fragile Arctic is extremely dangerous to the environment and spills would be difficult to clean up. Shell Oil stopped its Arctic drilling plans in the summer of 2014, then turned around and submitted a proposal in August to start drilling in 2015.
Greenpeace video & story:
http://www.takepart.com/video/2014/10/09/video-that-ended-legos-relationship-with-big-oil?cmpid=tp-san