Chapter 4: “You Can Be Sure of Shell”…
The slogan “You can be sure of Shell” became one of the company’s best-known advertising lines. Bing Crosby sang it in later television advertising,88 and other singers recorded versions of it too.89 My research indicates that the slogan was first used in Great Britain in 1937,90 only months after the resignation of Sir Henri Deterding as leader of the Group, the man most responsible for the creation and global success of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. The timing matters. Whatever its commercial intention, the slogan appeared at precisely the moment when Shell had reason to reassure consumers and investors about the integrity of the brand.
In 1997 Mark Moody-Stuart used the same slogan as the title of a letter in The Guardian responding to criticism of Shell.91 The letter promoted Shell’s ethical framework and business principles, but did not engage with the company’s double-dealings with Hitler and Nazi Germany, which had also been raised. The omission is revealing. The slogan has long been used to signal trust and reassurance, even when the history behind the brand is far less reassuring.
Notes
88. Link to YouTube.com video “Shell TV ad with Bing Crosby” uploaded 30 March 2010 by Ogilvy- Museum. ↩
89. Link to YouTube.com video “Michael Holliday: The Shell Song TV Advert” uploaded 2 November 2008 ↩
90. Link to royaldutchshellplc.com article dated 31 March 2011 under the headline: “YOU CAN BE SURE OF SHELL: The biggest con dence trick in history” ↩
91. Link to royaldutchshellplc.com article published 14 March 2008 under the headline: “The Guardian: Unloveable Shell, the Goddess of Oil” Source 1 ↩