If it didn’t have the Shell logo stamped all over it, this short « film » could just as easily be mistaken for a new type of chick flick- Romance in the Age of Global Warming (and in fact, I predict an increase in this type of movies in the future...) Here we have them, our heroes: Metrosexual Man, working to make a difference on the inside, and "Non-Conventional" girl, together forever in their quest to save the environment.

The Real Energy movie starts with the two protagonists walking around the Shell headquarters, engaging in some fast-pace dialogue on who’s doing it better. They are interns at Shell, but one of them is a bit more disillusioned than the other. The fatidical question “what are you doing with your life” pops up, and sets the tone for the many amazing things Metrosexual Man is going to achieve throughout the course of his career. Non-conventional Girl, though, remains unconvinced.

The scene quickly takes us at the heart of a corporate executive meeting where we are made privy to one of the most important business meetings of the century, one that is replete with usual business talk- we hear the words “financially not viable”, “long-term”, “short-term”, “investments”. Here, we have Tight-ass Business Woman, who has to be tough to keep her job in a world dominated by male execs, the middle-aged Exec Dude who’s seen it all and is ready to take a bold step and invest his precious dollars in a new ambitious project, Concerned Scientist, warning us all that “this is not a short-term problem” and then him, the energetic intern. Yes, the cliches are all there. It is 1986 and Shell wants us to know how concerned they were with the environment even back then- how advanced they were to have recognized immediately how Global Warming is not a short-term problem. What they forget to mention, however, is Global Warming itself. We only hear them refer to it as "this"- it is never called by name. Like an invisible enemy we need to conquer, "this" is there, making us work hard, but we can’t see it. (Before it was aliens or political enemies, now we have Nature itself!)   

In a heart-warming scene, Exec Dude exhorts his team to “do it right”, and we see Metrosexual Man jumping into action in his best power suit.  Next thing we know he is sitting in an Athens taxi, self-importantly declaring to the driver how he works for an “oil company”. (Is it just me or to call petroleum “oil” is a lingusitically unfair term? He could just as well be saying “I work for an olive oil company.” Anyway.) Here we see him proudly multi-tasking- on his way to a conference at the university and  on the phone with Malaysia, inquiring on the state of his company’s plant there. And then- we finally see him in action. Powerpoint presentation behind him, technical equipment in front of him, we hear him declare how we need to lower “city air pollution”- as if city air pollution IS the one and only problem we should be concerned with, the one that takes absolute priority, and one that is self-generating. Note how he skillfully uses nominalization and passive words to refer to the problem- who causes city air pollution? Why? Why is Shell so intent on reducing these emissions? No, no. It’s not up to you to ask these questions. That’s why they bring back Non-Conventional Girl into the picture. From a high corner in the dark, how lucky are we!, she is there to ask all of the tough questions for us.

And that’s when it starts- the romance, the flirting. (Should I wait to quote Sut Jhally? “The imperative task for those who want to stress a different set of values is to make the struggle for social change fun and sexy. By that I do not mean that we have to use images of sexuality, but that we have to find a way of thinking about the struggle against poverty, against homelessness, for healthcare and child-care, to protect the environment, in terms of pleasure and fun and happiness.”) (And the British accent confers an air of increased importance to the whole movie, doesn’t it? What’s sexier than a British accent anyway?) Metrosexual Man seems to win the first round, finally. The guy had been waiting for so long that he was probably just about to collapse from the accumulation of intense sexual energy in him. But there is no sex yet, at their dinner we learn that Non-conventional Girl has a baby at home… and she quickly proceeds to ditch Metrosexual Man when the babysitter calls. Nothing to do, poor guy, but wait until 2004, the year of the Greek Olympics. His life is inextricably linked to Shell: when Shell succeeds, he succeeds, when Shell struggles… he struggles.  

And then we see them- the threat posed by forest fires, “nature’s way of reminding us who’s in charge.” Metrosexual Man needs to think hard on this one (think Metrosexual Man, think!), we need him figure out what is wrong with the Malaysian plant so he can return to his belle and win her over. We see him in his colonial apartment with his colonial gardener, looking for an idea and then- revelation! It’s the damn forest fires that are causing the problem! A terrific action sequence follows, Metrosexual Man runs to Local Engineer, solves the mystery and gets complimented by Local Engineer for being a chemist who thinks outside the box! (Didn’t you know that Shell workers are more than just pragmatic business men? They have a culture!) By fixing the plant, Shell wants us to believe that they can fix Global Warming.

And then, finally, the tender scene of the lovers reuniting in Athens is there to fulfill all of our romantic dreams. But there are no horses for Prince Charming to ride, just a Shell-powered taxi. The two meet half-way on the street, he is dressed in his casual pants, sporting a pair of hip sunglasses, she, just like any true Non-Conventional Girl, is proudly wearing bohemian-chic clothes. They lock eyes for a second… and the rest is history. And then, just like in any movie based on real facts, we can follow up on the story by reading the subtitles: a new production plant in Qatar that can quench our thirst for oil, more successes for Shell etc. The eye-watering subtitles, combined with the sad music, end this gem of a movie so that we can all go home, happy and safe in the knowledge that Shell is working to make the world a better place.

http://realenergy.shell.com/?lang=en&page=homeFlash#ClearingTheAir-clearingTheAir