July 2008 Archives - Peter S. Scholtes

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Houston Press
The Passion of Victoria Osteen
A flight attendant's smackdown with the wife of mega-preacher Joel Osteen inspires a whole new set of commandments.
By Rich Connelly
The Pitch
Star Power
A country musician rescues Waylon Jennings' tour bus from the scrap heap.
By C.J. Janovy
Village Voice
Serrano's Second Movement
The provocateur who brought you "Piss Christ" pinches off a new concept.
By Lynn Yaeger

July 6, 2008 - July 12, 2008

« June 1, 2008 - June 7, 2008 | Main | July 13, 2008 - July 19, 2008 »

Shell: I drink your milkshake

Remember the "I drink your milkshake" scene in There Will Be Blood?

Or the "I Drink Your Milkshake" parody sketch on Saturday Night Live?

Or this parody video using the Kelis song? (There are many more like it.)

Well now here's this amazing bit of 2007 propaganda from Shell oil, with a dewey-eyed chief Shell engineer (played by an actor) putting forward the soulful, eco-friendly, Eastern-spiritual, fatherly face of the oil industry--he gets the idea for a new drilling technique while watching his son sip a milkshake.

Coincidence?

I recently had the odd experience of hearing a cohost on KMOJ's Financial Fitness try to persuade the station's listenership that Iran is behind high gas prices, and we should support U.S. military action. I also heard a Democracy Now! segment about Equatorial Guinea's oil dictator--very chummy with the would-be invaders of Iran, by the way--who has enriched himself and his family by holding the straw as Exxon-Mobile drinks his country's milkshake.

Various Nigerian dictators have done the same for Shell, which has been trying to repair its image--while still enjoying that milkshake--ever since the state hanged anti-Shell activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995. Here's a page about how and why to boycott Shell (now drinking Ireland's milkshake). Or on the youtube tip: