Shell has created a very strong stable of print ads that has artfully expressed an area of value that the public has often overlooked. That is that shell does not only extract substances from the ground to make energy, but they also have a valuable culture of innovation.

One of their ads in this campaign is ” Say No to No”, a quite clever take on the main rule of innovation (the main rule being do not discount crazy ideas by saying no to those ideas immediately). The ad shows an industrious, determined, and smart college student going crazy expressing his ideas on the chalkboard. The ad is an inspiration in its imagery. The ad also portrays a tone of rebellion in that you should not listen to you doubters and pursue your wild schemes. This, I like.

Two things that I find troublesome, at least from Shell’s point of view, are this:

• The ad shows one industrious kid writing away with his crazy idea. How autocratic is that? There is no doubt that one person can come up with a good idea, but in a culture of innovation it takes a group of people to make an idea shine. One person evokes one mind. It evokes one point of view. One could even say the boy a the board, with his back turned to everyone could care less about anyone else.
• “Say No to No” is a great distiller of a broad and complex concept into a tiny chunk, but it could come back to burn Shell. Say No to No could be interpreted in so many different ways. Wouldn’t it be fun, for instance, if Shell broke major environmental regulations (which, most likely they have) and the headline in the newspaper reads: “Shell says No to No”? It always sucks to have your brand catchphrase bite you in the as like that.

Regardless of your feelings about Shell, they’re not going away, so I appreciate seeing some sort of commitment to promote an innovative culture. It makes me feel just a bit more warm and safe on a visceral level.