Eureka Analysis

Some advertisements manipulate their audience with false associations, distorted images, or emotional appeals, but rarely do all three of these techniques combine to create an effect quite as interesting as in Shell’s 2007 ad campaign Eureka. The minute and a half ad tells ‘a story inspired by real events’ about Jaap Van Ballegooijen, a conflicted Shell engineer who divides his attention between work and family. For work, he travels to exotic locations around the world, ruminating over how to access their oil pockets without destroying the environment. While on the road he also tries in vain to maintain a relationship with his rebellious son. Halfway through ad they have a lukewarm reunion over burgers and shakes, but then the tone suddenly changes. When his son turns a twisty straw upside-down to suck up the remains of his shake, Ballegooijen has a ‘eureka moment.’ The next day at a Shell meeting he presents a model based on the twisty straw for drilling into small oil pockets. Executives receive the idea with fanfare and congratulations, our heroic father and son finally reconcile over soccer, and Ballegooijen’s narration concludes “solutions can be found in the most unlikely places.”

However inspiration the advertisement may be, Shell definitely produced it for a more pragmatic reason. Namely, the ad explicitly addresses the criticism that off shore oil drilling destroys natural beauty. His son voices this position, questioning his father’s occupation harshly. Once reunited, the son asks his father scornfully, “Which beautiful part of the world are you drilling to pieces now?” Understandably feeling hurt by his sons comment, Ballegooijen doesn’t rebuke the pointed question. In fact, earlier in the video, Ballegooijen is flying over a tropical coast with a local passenger. He explains to the passenger, “As far as you can see are thousands of smaller pockets of oil. The trouble is that we’d have to build thousands of other platforms just to reach them. Economically and environmentally that’s just not acceptable.” This comment on the environmental effects of off shore oil drilling presents Shell employees as aware and concerned about the impact their work has on nature, even judging the construction of more oilrigs unacceptable. The action Ballegooijen takes throughout the video reinforces this attitude of concern. Most of the acts the oil entrepreneur engages in consist of researching alternative ways to drill that are more eco-friendly.

Moreover, Shell’s protagonist is portrayed in a sympathetic light. Many parents in the audience would relate to the struggles Ballegooijen has with his son. Having previously seen that the father truly is grappling with the logistics of discovering ways to ethically drill, the scorn he faces from his son appears unwarranted. No father enjoys being rejected by his son on the sole basis of vocation, especially when that rejection doesn’t consider the entire range of things that job does. The audience sees that Ballegooijen is not the ruthless decimator his son seems to conceptualize him as. Accordingly, parents in the audience suffer with him when his son lashes out. Perhaps the intended effect of this interaction is to create hesitation about criticizing the oil industry. If Ballegooijen’s son is being unreasonable and unfair with his negative opinions, maybe similar people will become more hesitant in voicing their opinions after the sympathetic ad.

The dramatic relationship Ballegooijen has with his son seems unrelated to the product Shell is trying to sell. An employee’s paternal struggles should have little to do with persuading consumers to purchase a product. Nevertheless, the drama is here, taking up almost half of the advertisement. One can only assume that Shell has a reason for including this. Most likely, it’s there because it gives the audience someone to identify with. The oil industry is frequently demonized for it’s all around destructive role in environmental affairs (not to mention the massive ‘windfall’ profits). So Shell is literally presenting its best face here, a father who not only cares about the environment but also his son. Essentially, Shell is indirectly indicating that they are more concerned with making pathos appeals than demonstrating logical arguments that show their progress in advancing environmental causes. With no actual facts about Shell’s environmental record included in the ad, one can’t help but wonder whether the kind of green values that they are claiming to prioritize actually exist or not.

Shell uses nature in a very deliberate way in the commercial. Extremely beautiful locations are prominently placed in the advertisement. During the helicopter scene in particular, aerial shots of the coast capture the idyllic tropic image generations have admired. The treatment of these tropical images establishes a theme that might be misleading. Shell is sending a dubious message that some places are natural treasures, better left preserved and unspoiled. Even the local culture is honored. A crowd of cattle is herded out into the road Ballegooijen is driving down, and he stops to patiently wait for them to cross. While this respect would resonate with an environmental audience, it seems disconnected from the actual business Shell conducts. They are, first and foremost, an oil company. As such, they need to drill, extract, and transport oil from places like the one in the video in order to stay profitable. Exploiting beautiful scenic imagery to suggest that Shell respects higher values is probably misleading. In reality, the oceans are still being drilled until fossil fuels spew out, the quaint villages are being replaced by rapid transit systems, and the whole oil process intrudes on most aspects of the local biosphere.

Ultimately the ‘Eureka’ ad expresses a clear theme. It wants to convince the audience that oil companies, Shell specifically, take the environment into consideration during their day-to-day operating procedures. Additionally, Shell wants to put a face to their company so that people hesitate before demonizing the work that they do. Ballegooijen puts a personable face onto a vast company. His apprehensive presence and family struggles personalizes the actions of a giant transnational corporation. More narrowly speaking, the ad generates excitement for the new ‘twisty-straw drill’ that can access small pockets from one central oilrig. These goals are all well executed, but the problem with the ad is that Shell’s environmental credentials are doubtful at best. Audience members should rightfully be suspicious anytime oil companies present themselves as a green enterprise.