In the new Alan Partridge series, Steve Coogan's comedy creation takes aim at the use of public relations campaigns by controversial companies, neatly lampooning both the perpetrators and consumers of this 'reputation laundering' in one fell swoop. "Good for them," he says when he learns that oil company Shell had sponsored the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. "They get a lot of stick for the Exxon Valdez oil spill, but then they sponsor a prize for animal photos and you think, maybe it's time to take a fresh look at Shell."
We were invited to take a fresh look at Team Sky eight months ago, when they turned up to the Tour de France with orca whales on the backs of their jerseys in support of Sky's Ocean Rescue, a campaign aiming to help tackle the global plastic pollution crisis. It was impossible to question the cause, but not the intentions. With the team mired in the controversy surrounding Chris Froome's salbutamol case, the cynical eye saw it as a page ripped directly out of the Alastair Campbell playbook.
Eight months on, that cynicism would seem well placed, as Dave Brailsford unveils Ineos, one of the world's biggest producers of non-degradable plastics, as the new sponsor of his team. Where that leaves the team's commitment to removing all single-use plastics from their business operations by 2020 is anyone's guess. They have not yet responded to a request for comment.
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Ineos, headed by Britain's richest man, Jim Ratcliffe, has faced fierce criticism from environmental campaigners for a number of years now, many of whom reacted with dismay to Tuesday's announcement.
Ineos is a petrochemical company with a wide range of businesses. In plastics, it claims to be Europe's third largest producer of polyethylene and polypropylene, the two most common plastic compounds, which are widely used in packaging and construction. Plastic is also at the heart of perhaps the most controversial aspect of Ineos: its quest to see fracking rolled out in the UK. Fracking is the process by which water, sand, and chemicals are pumped underground to trigger disruptions in rock formations that release shale gas, which is an energy source and also feedstock for ethylene, the raw material for the aforementioned plastics.
Ineos, which currently imports shale gas from the USA to Europe in specifically-developed cryogenic shipping vessels, claim fracking would revitalise Britain's languishing manufacturing sector. Green groups, however, warn of dangers to the environment - through climate change, water and air pollution, and even earthquakes - and also to public health. There have been numerous protests, to which Ineos has responded by taking out an injunction that could see anti-fracking campaigners jailed if they interfere with operations.
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