Amnesty to use social media for first time to pay for Shell ad

Bloggers put at heart of Amnesty’s campaign to shame oil giant Shell

Amnesty International today launched a mass online appeal through Facebook, Twitter and Myspace as well as its blogger network to ask members of the public to help pay for a hard-hitting advertising campaign to coincide with Shell’s AGM on 18 May.

It is the first time Amnesty International has used fundraising to pay for a campaigning advertisement.

The full-page newspaper ad highlights Shell’s responsibility for pollution in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, where oil spillages and gas flaring have polluted people’s water supply and devastated livelihoods based on fishing and farming.

Amnesty International UK poverty & human rights campaign manager, Naomi McAuliffe, said:

“Holding big business to account is quite different to targeting abusive governments, but it’s something that Amnesty is doing more and more as corporates impact increasingly on people’s rights.

“The AGM is where Shell’s Board is held to account by its shareholders, so it’s an ideal time for us to try to influence the company’s policies.

“Amnesty is a campaigning organisation and advertising is a great way of exerting influence. Of course it doesn’t come cheap, so we’re looking to concerned members of the public to help us pay for a powerful ad.

“Because of the activity of Shell and other oil companies, people in the Niger Delta are left to drink polluted water, eat contaminated fish, farm on spoiled land and breath in air that stinks of oil and gas. We want to expose the culprits and get them to come clean and accept responsibility.”