Pranksters target Shell with fake news release and video

Gawker picked up the video, as did Ben Smith, the highly influential editor of BuzzFeed, who shared it with his more than 80,000 Twitter followers, commenting: “A pretty amazing PR event gone wrong.” (He later sent a tweet indicating it was fake.)

However, a Shell spokesperson confirmed to Grist.org’s Jess Zimmerman that the incident depicted was “not a Shell event.” Zimmerman speculated that corporate pranksters the Yes Men are behind the video.