• Ad Age, Thursday, June 24, 2010 10:48 AM

Shell Oil seems to be the only oil company willing to aggressively promote itself in the wake of BP's oil spill in the Gulf. As BP's public relations efforts continue to flop and founder, Shell has launched print, TV, online and outdoor campaign, as well as two Web sites -- energygalaxy.com and shell.us/letsgo -- Michael Bush reports.

The message is that the world will soon be on the road to sustainable mobility and that Shell is "ready to help tackle the challenges of the new energy future." It has been nearly a year in the making.

In fact, Eric Dezenhall, CEO and co-founder of Dezenhall Resources, tells Bush that the best approach for an oil company in good times and bad is to draw as little attention to itself as possible. "Nobody likes oil companies and nobody ever will," he writes in an e-mail. Shell obviously disagrees.

"We realized that in spite of the situation in the Gulf being ongoing, we wanted to launch our campaign as planned because we believe that now is an important time to engage with our customers and stakeholders," says Shell brand manager Patricia Singer. "It's important to communicate how we operate, what we need to achieve together and that we all have a role to play in meeting the growing demand and challenge of this new energy future."

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