Fortnite has announced an unexpected and controversial partnership with the BIg Oil company Shell in promotion of their premium gasoline named V-Power Nitro+. A short promotional trailer for the Shell Ultimate Road Trips campaign revealed a new map with six different terrains where players can travel through and interacte with various Shell Gas stations.

Fortnite is partnering with… *checks notes,* Big Oil giant Shell to promote premium gasoline.

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— Jez (@JezCorden) October 6, 2023

Unsurprisingly this collaboration resulted in a large amount of uproar from the video game community as well as climate activists for pushing out pro fossil fuels propaganda. According to The Guardian, Shell has been recently targeting younger demographics thanks to research by the nonforprofit watchdog Media Matters for America.

Media Matters analyst Ilana Berger critiqued Shell’s latest campaign to The Guardian.

“Trade industry groups and energy companies have sought to use influencer marketing to humanize their products, even though the impacts of these products are driving climate change [and] jeopardizing the future of its target audience,” said Berger.

Media Matters research revealed that Shell had sponsored six streamers on Twitch and three non-streamer creators on other platforms, who promoted their campaign in their respective videos. It’s alleged that the total viewers were a combined 1.5 million Instagram followers, 8.5 million on TikTok and 11.6 million on YouTube.

This isn’t the first time Shell has done a campaign like this, and it likely won’t be the last. Unfortunately for Shell, with agen Z growing more and more climate conscious each year, it’s attempts at wooing the younger generations will only grow harder and harder.