This 1980 Shell Chemical Company Publication Outlines Plans to Create 'Grassroots' Campaigns

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Originally posted on Climate Files.

This 1980 edition of TREND, a bimonthly Shell Chemical Company (Shell) publication, featured a series of articles on issues concerning the company, including: โ€œEmerging techniques for effective corporate response to public issues,โ€ the Chemical Manufacturers Association โ€œCommunication Action Plan,โ€ โ€œIndividualism,โ€ โ€œGasohol,โ€ โ€œThe U.S. Supreme Courtโ€™s decision on OSHAโ€™s Benzene standards,โ€ and โ€œChemical feedstocks fromย synfuels.โ€

I. A New Public Relationsย Strategy

TRENDโ€™s first two pieces highlighted the companyโ€™s increasing collaboration with trade associations in their effort to shape public opinion and the expansion and restructuring of Shellโ€™s Public Affairs division. Although the document does not address climate change directly, it illuminates the communication tactics utilized by Shell for environmental issues at large. The strategies outlined in this document to gain โ€œsocial approvalโ€ were implemented for years to come, most notably, in its Profits and Principles ad campaign.

Shellโ€™s new public relations approach was aimed at shaping issue narratives not just in Washington, but in the home of the consumer. Shell hoped to avert what the company deemed โ€œunnecessaryโ€ regulations by preventing negative publicity such as executives having to โ€œanswer questions that hadnโ€™t been anticipatedโ€ before a โ€œCongressional committee or theย press.โ€

As Shell Chemical Companyโ€™s President James B. Hendersonย stated:

โ€œThe legislative process has been working long before it reaches Washington โ€ฆ energy policy is formed as people talk to legislators. And legislators talk to one another. At home. Because we fail to become involved in these early stages, we are forced to react โ€” in Washington โ€” as policy suddenly appearsย โ€ฆโ€

Corporate managers wanted to address public issues concerning the company before they reached โ€œthe legislative halls and the company [was] faced with an investigation committee or a government agency out to enforce new legislative mandates.โ€ As part of this new strategy, Shell would deploy an โ€œall-out effort to reach opinion leaders and legislatorsโ€ on priority issues. These tactics ranged from providing โ€œexpert testimony before a Congressional Committeeโ€ to reaching out to employees, customers, andย investors.

In order to illustrate how unmanaged public opinion could result โ€œin costly and restrictive regulations,โ€ the publication recounts the consequences of โ€œunfavorable publicityโ€ on railroad derailments, including TV interviews with โ€œemployees who fear[ed] for their livesโ€ as track infrastructureย deteriorated.

Despite efforts by the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA), a trade association for the chemical industry, to communicate โ€œthe industryโ€™s story on a broad front,โ€ Shell lamented that the railroad derailment issue is โ€œfar alongโ€ and threatens to โ€œunnecessarily complicate various segments of the chemical industryโ€ with governmentย involvement.

II. Grassrootsย Efforts

In addition to Shellโ€™s efforts with CMA to shape public opinion and policy, the company also offered support of CMA โ€œgrassrootsโ€ initiatives in the form of โ€œleadership, resources, manpower, andย funding.โ€

One such initiative, a โ€œfive-part communications/action planโ€ named ChemCAP, was conceived by the CMA after studying public attitudes towards the chemical industry. Shell management was actively involved in the plan which targeted policy makers and consumers alike on โ€œmajor issuesโ€ such as worker safety and environmentalย hazards.

ChemCAP armed member companies with an array of sophisticated materials including pre-made advertisements, informational booklets, and even โ€œa science advisory group to serve as industry spokesmen on nationwide media tours.โ€ The final stage of the initiative involved a โ€œgrassroots levelโ€ communication strategy in identified communities of โ€œchemical plantย concentration.โ€

ChemCAP armed member companies with an array of sophisticated materials including pre-made advertisements, informational booklets, and even โ€œa science advisory group to serve as industry spokesmen on nationwide media tours.โ€ The final stage of the initiative involved a โ€œgrassroots levelโ€ communication strategy in identified communities of โ€œchemical plantย concentration.โ€

The publication also mentions another โ€œgrassroots campaign,โ€ of which Shell was actively involved, that focused on feedstock allocation issues. This effort was โ€œspearheadedโ€ by a different trade association, the Society of the Plastics Industry. Ken Spalding, a manager within Shell Chemical, reflected that the company was โ€œfortunateโ€ to have the time โ€œto launch and carry outโ€ the effort, aimed at influencing legislation for the following year. Spalding emphasized that in order for public attitudes to be โ€œcleared up and swayed,โ€ there needed to be a sustained effort by โ€œthe industry atย large.โ€

Supporting the sentiments of Shell management, the publication points out that because carcinogens and other hazardous spills โ€œturned the pubic spotlight on chemicals more than at any previous time in the industryโ€™s history,โ€ efforts to shape public perception had โ€œnever been moreย timely.โ€

Other topics in the publicationย include:

  1. A discussion on the place of individualism in corporateย culture
  2. Shellโ€™s position to not enter the gasoholย business
  3. A Supreme Court decision affirming the Occupational Safety and Health Administrationโ€™s burden to prove that benzene poses a significant risk to human health before it can establish a lower exposure limit. Shell emphasized that the decision deemed that a โ€œsafe and healthful workplaceโ€ does not require โ€œthe total elimination ofย hazardsโ€
  4. The progression of synfuel technologies in the energy industry, particularly the price and availability of conventionalย feedstocks

Main image: An article in the 1980 Shell Chemical Company publication TREND.

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