Greenpeace is known for its headline grabbing PR stunts, but was its latest stunt– climbing the Shard in London- really worth it? It claims its cause was to draw attention to Shell’s oil and gas drilling plans in the arctic. However, Greenpeace climbing a tall building – it’s all been seen and done before.
The irrelevance of targeting the Shard as the chosen building to climb can only be described as somewhat confusing, given that it has nothing to do with Shell or the plans in the arctic. Greenpeace says that it chose the Shard because three Shell buildings and the HQ can be seen from the Shard; meaning Shell would see its climb.
However, if they wanted to increase the general publics’ awareness, they’ve failed spectacularly. The main thing people will remember is that they climbed the Shard, and most are unsure why. Greenpeace didn’t even get a chance to release a large image of a polar bear as they were too tired and had run out of time, which could have helped to demonstrate their cause a little better.
I think a lot of their previous stunts have been much more effective as they are visual, meaning people will remember them. For example, the KFC rainforest campaign was extremely visual and quick but effective, whereas Greenpeace took about fifteen hours to climb the Shard, which isn’t exactly thrilling to watch.
I agree with Toby Young from The Telegraph when he noted it would have made more sense to climb the nearby Shell HQ building, although calling the stunt ‘sexist’ is utterly ridiculous. Despite only women taking part in the climb – and yes this may have been for better publicity, Young describing that this is Greenpeace ‘accepting that women are the weaker sex’ is a joke.
All in all I think this was a waste of Greenpeace’s time, and am baffled as to why they didn’t just climb the Shell HQ if it was so near. The stunt won’t have a lasting impact and is already becoming old news.
This was a guest post from Gemma Payne who is helping out in the caves today.
With thanks for the photo credit to : https://www.flickr.com/photos/11540081@N05/6117120956
