Greenpeace recently teamed up with activist pranksters, The Yes Men. Their goal? To rip Shell a new one over their planned Arctic oil drilling. If you are not familiar with The Yes Men, then it is advised you watch this video first (the full film is highly recommended).

Their latest prank is a great (and hilarious) example of how social media and activism have become inseparable.

Last Thursday somebody on Youtube called “kstr3l” posted a video from his phone of a Shell PR event gone horribly, hilariously wrong. By Friday afternoon it had already been watched 500,000 times, and was making the rounds with the tag #ShellFAIL. Here is the video:

By the way, the elderly lady who caught the spurt full in the face was supposedly the widow of the rig’s original designer – but it was actually 84-year-old Occupy activist Dorli Rainey who was pepper sprayed last year.

Then journalists who had covered the story received a threatening email, calling the whole thing an environmental activist hoax and directing people to a website about the company’s arctic oil drilling plans.

But guess what? The email and the website it directed viewers to was also fake. See if you would have been caught out if you read this opening statement on the ArcticReady.com homepage:

“That’s why we at Shell are committed to not only recognize the challenges that climate change brings, but to take advantage of its tremendous opportunities. And what’s the biggest opportunity we’ve got today? The melting Arctic.”

It gets better! The website also has a “competition section”, inviting people to submit their own designs for Shell’s The Let’s Go! Arctic campaign.

Brace yourself for a laugh below:

[Thanks, Andrew!]