The Shell Poll

The Shell Poll was built to start conversations rather than to win arguments. It is a series of regular opinion surveys conducted for Shell by prominent research associates, exploring education, the workplace, crime, ethics and values — a natural extension of the Count on Shell campaign, which had already established Shell as a provider of reliable, accurate information for everyday life.

Results went to the media, and also further. GCW distributed a poll topline to opinion leaders in Congress, in state and local government, and to business and community leaders, to encourage discussion in homes, schools and workplaces across the country.

The discipline was in what the poll did not claim. The results do not represent the opinions of Shell's employees or management; they are the opinions of a representative cross-section of all of America. Nor do they represent any action or potential action by Shell beyond encouraging dialogue. Shell's purpose was never to put forward specific solutions or remedies — but the results lead to the dialogue in which solutions come about.

That credibility is why top-tier media like USA Today would ask GCW to include their question of the day in the poll and then publish the results. One of the later polls was conducted in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education: to understand the challenges facing young Americans, the poll went straight to the source and surveyed American high school students, opening a conversation between Shell and the Secretary of Education about Shell's Youth Training Academies and about how companies like Shell could play a more vital role in education. Other polls examined women's issues — attitudes to work, family and financial decision-making.