the perils of crowd-sourced advertising?

Hats off to the good folks inside Shell's marketing organisation. Ever at the bleeding edge, they are "committed to online social media" because "after all, it's the fuel that lubricates the engines of internet communication."

With this in mind, the giant oil company has decided to dip its toes into the rainbow-hued waters of crowd-sourced advertising, promising that the best ads slogans submitted online will be used in a poster campaign. This will "take the Arctic Ready message offline, directly to the drivers who benefit from Shell's performance fuels." In a stroke of particular genius that is sure to be appreciated by colleagues in Shell's PR and corporate communication teams, the ads submitted to the contest are all displayed on the company's website for anyone to see. Will any of these entries make it onto poster sites?

UPDATE

Turns out that the above is a spoof. Thanks to Thom Beckett for pointing that out. What's actually going on here is Greenpeace and The Yes Men running an elaborate hoax to encourage anti-Shell messages from those unimpressed by the company expanding its operations in the Arctic. The best part is that Shell are not going to sue.