BP: Bad Press
9 July 2010 16:26
BP: Bad Press
In the wake of the oil spill, BP’s public relations haven’t exactly been slick. The company’s actions in the Gulf of Mexico were always going to be closely scrutinised in an event of this nature, but several PR disasters have also furthered to draw all eyes to the British company.
So far and somewhat conflictingly, the company’s PR moves have been judged as being simultaneously condescending and naïve. Their actions have been condemned, satirised, and pitied, and PETA is even pushing for animal rights campaigners to submit cruelty charges against them. But their well-meaning actions have not been commended by either the media or the general public.
Firstly, BP has been spending around 10,000 US$ a day on sponsored search engine links to ensure its monopoly on terms relating to the oil spill. Perhaps a sensible PR move to counteract bad press on paper, but BP has been criticised for not directing this large sum of money towards any actual, tangible clean up efforts in the Gulf.
Secondly, BP’s decision to stream live video from the ocean floor – evidently to show the company’s commitment and actions towards capping the oil spill – has only acted to further undermine their relationship with the public. Putting aside the failed attempts to actually cap the spill, the live stream views like a harrowing reality TV show; a visual perception of failure in which the observer can only watch helplessly as gallons of oil enter the sea.
In another well-intentioned PR move that’s fallen flat, the company has hired two reporters to provide updates of the cleanup operations. Tom Seslars writes the following in one of the entries to the ‘Blogs from the Gulf’ section of the BP website:
I was […] planning to seek out and write about some of the people most immediately affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. People period, not just BP people
In one update by Paula Kolmar, dated May 28, she writes about how she ‘enjoyed the spectacular ballet at sea.’
Watching the captains weave the long black boom as seamlessly as a professional ballet troupe performs an intricate dance, I found it difficult to believe that the rehearsals only started some weeks ago […] A ballet at sea as mesmerising as any performance in a concert hall, and worthy of an audience in its own right.
Good on them for trying, but it is impossible for any discerning reader to see these blogs as independent or unbiased reports on the situation. Far from placating the public, some have described these blogs as being ‘patronising,’ ‘strange,’ and even ‘lipstick on a pig.’
Most recently, BP has been portrayed as ‘bullying’ satirical @BpglobalPR, a Twitter feed that provides amusing updates from online persona Leeroy Sticks under the guise of a BP representative. This week, BP has asked Leeroy to specify that the feed featuring updates like ‘The ocean looks a bit slimmer today. Dressing it in black really did the trick! #bpcares’ is a fake– if that wasn’t already self-evident.
‘You know the best way to get the public to respect your brand?’ asks Leeroy in his blog. ‘Have a respectable brand.’ He may have a point. But the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is much more than a PR crisis. It’s a full-blown industrial and environmental disaster.
Instead of appeasing the public with the flowery language of the blogs, or the live video stream from the base of the ocean, BP’s efforts just seem to just be pouring oil onto troubled waters. What practical actions could BP take to bridge the gulf that they have created? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Photography by Meriana Guerra
