Lukoil : Approving seals

Humour helps float a corporate responsibility message.

The Site

Lukoil, Russia’s leading oil and gas producer, puts across an environmental message with a touch of humour.

Lukoil keeps a small archive of Ecological monitoring reports within its Environment section. While these are sizeable PDF files the page’s thumbnail index is headed by a video titled ‘The Varandey FOIROT underwent an independent environmental audit’. This is a short (one minute) film on the installation of an oil terminal in the Baltic Sea and plays in Windows Media.

At two points in the film the camera focuses on a large seal swimming around the base of a pipeline inlet. On the first occasion, the voiceover informs viewers that “The environmental safety of Lukoil’s Varandev oil terminal has been fully confirmed. An independent examination was carried out by local sea seals, which can hardly be suspected of any bias…. their supervision ensures that the unique project is executed to the highest environmental standards”. The video has the same prominence both on the English- and Russian-language versions of the site.

The Takeaway

Earlier in the year our newsletter carried a comment piece from sound and music consultancy Sound Strategies noting the prevailing absence of sound on corporate websites. They were nevertheless able to cite some examples; had they been looking for signs of the use of humour, their pickings would have been even slimmer. Leave aside the occasional effort to connect with college students and graduates, and it’s clear that even companies which willingly accept that a dash of humour can help lift their advertising see the corporate site as far too serious a place for any such thing.

But then, did you hear the one about the oil company from eastern Europe that put across an environmental message with a deft smile? Funny, that.

First published on 03 September, 2009