Pranksters target Shell with fake news release and video

A video depicting a Shell PR event gone wrong is a fake, the company has confirmed.

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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.

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