05/02/2025
“Anatomy Of A Storm”; Or, The Hater’s Guide To Tanuki’s YouTube Video
We interrupt this programme to bring you a Public Service Announcement.
By now everyone must be at least aware of, if they haven’t actually watched, a YouTube video in which a young man scurries around the boroughs of Nairobi city wielding a handheld device with which he proceeds to conduct arbitrary testing procedures on the octane ratings of a variety of fuel samples, and the results he presents to his viewership are… controversial, to put it mildly.
It is pointless to point out the uproar this little gem of an audio-visual production has caused: more than 72 hours after it first entered the public eye, everyone is still heatedly discussing it. What both the content creator and a large cross-section of the general public do not fully understand is the implications that the claims made in the film have. For some it means they will simply stop fuelling at certain spots in favour of others. For some, it provides a hill to die on as they climb atop their long disused soapboxes to pontificate wildly in an attempt to restore previously misplaced relevance.
The real picture is: the film has heavy and far-reaching ramifications that literally extend to global influence; the likes of which cause heads to roll.
The Motoring Press Agency was in the process of rolling out the latest edition of its flagship publication MPA Magazine, the cheekily titled “Woke Tuah: The Price of Getting Noticed” when Sunday’s events forced us to put a pause to that exercise. This edition of the magazine explored the antics and shenanigans that various elements within the automotive industry have dabbled in and the lengths they have gone to in search of attention, and the unforeseen side effects they have had to withstand as a result of gaining this attention - only for a man in a BMW to lay waste to our entire content plan by outdoing everyone else with a 34-minute video which got jaws dropping and tongues wagging everywhere.
We have heard, seen and read various reactions to the film. Most of these reactions reveal how precious little people know about the subject matter. In actuality, it is close to nothing. And this is where we come in.
The Motoring Press Agency is uniquely positioned in the automotive industry in that we are familiar with everything and everyone involved in the chaos resulting from that film. We have a relationship with Kenyan motorists who are now questioning the legitimacy of what they shell out for (pun intended) any time they top up their fuel tanks. We have a relationship with the oil marketing companies that were name-dropped in the film, who are either now dealing with an influx of new clientele they never saw coming or are having to deploy emergency response teams to quell a public relations conflagration the magnitude of which would not look out of place on the west coast of the USA.
Most crucially, we know “Tanuki”, the name behind the YouTube account and who we have interacted with on several occasions previously, both informally and professionally.
This therefore means unlike most of the other chatter going round, our input to this matter contains an extra ingredient that the rest do not: and that is perspective. Context. Background. There is a lot more to the film than meets the eye, and once we understand this background, things will finally start to make sense.
It therefore follows that the previously advertised Woke Tuah issue of MPA Volume I will have to make way for an MPA Volume II Special Report looking into this matter. And there is a lot of ground to cover. In this report:
- The Problem Statement: are motorists being cheated at the pump, and if so, by whom?
- The Background: what is octane and why did this video make us drop everything else to pick it up? Who is “Tanuki”?
- Deconstructing The Film: the disclaimers, the equipment, the methodology and the credibility
- How Octane Ratings Are Actually Determined: a visit to the lab and how we almost put “Wockaby-with-a-CK” onto an aircraft to Mombasa with a bottle of Shell V Power fuel burning a hole in his pocket.
- Industry Framework: EPRA and KEBS enter the chat. Also, what exactly do these accusations, allegations, engagement farming and clickbait all mean in the grand scheme of things? Is Shell-Vivo being wrongly accused?
- Proof of Life: a visit to Ground Zero, followed by a visit to Vivo Energy’s Nairobi Terminal to find out just what exactly is going on.
There is plenty more to be unpacked, and it will be in the report; but this explains why we have not been in a hurry to chime in with our two cents. These two cents are more like ten dollars in depth and magnitude. As has come to be expected from us, the topics will be handled with clarity, honesty and ease of comprehension that have always been the defining characteristics of our output.
We will conclude by saying it behoves us as end users to be discretionary about the content we consume and the rapidity with which we consume it. In this day and age of social media, anything goes; and both misinformation and disinformation are clear and present dangers to the representation of reality. More importantly, it is our prerogative as end users to exercise due diligence. We have to question what is presented to us; be it a fuel type chemically engineered for market superiority or a YouTube video claiming the aforementioned gimmick constitutes fake news – and the answers we get must be convincing, conclusive, impeccable and immune to contradiction.
Learn to ask questions.
Regards,
Justus M Baraza
Director & Head of Strategy
Motoring Press Agency © 2025
Motion ǀ Power ǀ Advancement
