Ethics Adviser Dumps On Shell

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Following the execution of Nigerian environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and its attempt to dump the Brent Spar oil platform in the ocean, Shell appointed a dozen people to oversee its image overhaul. A decade later, Simon Longstaff, one of Shell's twelve and the director of Sydney's St. James Ethical Centre, lashed out at Shell. "The process we went through was thorough and exhaustive, but what concerned me was seeing the marketing arm of the company turn it into a PR exercise as soon as we had finished," he said. "It was a process that should have happened slowly and been led from the top for real change to occur. Leveraging it for advertising and then having the process betrayed by the man at the top sent a very confused message to everyone in the company that wanted real change." Longstaff's comments echo critiques of Shell's operations in Nigeria and apartheid South Africa.