The industry’s PR response from Deepwater is shaping up nicely. This is the industry message: We will give you improved safety and you give us resumed drilling. The Gulf of Mexico represents energy security and jobs for the boys to boot. The tar sands of Canada also represent energy security, so if you let us … Read More
Public Relations
Industry Steps Up Pro-Offshore Drilling Campaign
To pardon the pun, but the tide is turning. Soon everything could be back to normal. There is an aggressive lobbying campaign by the oil industry to overturn Obama’s offshore drilling moratorium, despite the fact that opposition of offshore drilling continues to rise. Part of the industry campaign is to argue that support for offshore … Read More
“A Global Laughing Stock”
The Washington Post leads this morning on how the critical players in the Gulf disaster are all hiring public relations consultants like they are going out of fashion to try and repair their battered and bruised images. BP, according to the paper, “has assembled a formidable team of Democrats for its Washington lobbying and public-relations … Read More
It’s Time for the Truth, Tony
Yesterday was yet another gaffe from BP, but thankfully it was not yet another one from the company’s CEO Tony Hayward. This time it was the company’s chairman who was speaking to the media for the first time. As he left the White House, BP’s chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said: “We care about the small people. … Read More
A Vital Week for BP – Will it Sink or Swim?
So the viral joke on the internet is that whether it be oil spills or footballs – England can’t contain either. After England goalie Robert Green’s disastrous mistake against the US on Saturday night at the World Cup – can England get anything right? For BP there have been many weeks that have ebbed and … Read More
BP: Brand Pollution
The general consensus – in the mainstream media and blogosphere – is that Tony Hayward is now toast. He will probably survives long enough to give evidence to Congress next week, but more and more people are betting he will be gone by Xmas. Obama banged another nail in Hayward’s coffin yesterday when he said … Read More
BP Manipulates the Web
The online public relations battle is hotting up. BP may be losing the twitter war but is doing its damndest to make sure it won’t lose the Google war. According to ABC News, BP has purchased several phrases on search engines such as Google and Yahoo so that online users get directed to the company’s … Read More
BP Losing Twitter War
BP has a problem. No its not the tens of millions of gallons of crude oil floating or submerged in the Gulf of Mexico. No its not the countless wildlife or fish or shrimps dying across the Gulf. No its not the thousands of livelihoods destroyed by the spill No its not the billions wiped … Read More
Revealed: BP’s PR Company’s Links to Number 10
BP’s spin machine kicked up another gear yesterday as the company started airing adverts on American television showing the company’s embattled Tony Hayward apologising to those affected by the spill. “We will get this done. We will get this right,” says a contrite looking Haywood at the end. The adverts come on a crucial day … Read More
You Can Hide, But You Can’t Run
Now that BP’s jury-rigged contraption to contain its massive Gulf of Mexico oil spew has failed, the company’s only resort is to continue pumping massive amounts of dispersant into the water near the wellhead, in an attempt to – what exactly? The dispersant goes by the trade name “Corexit.” It’s supposed to be a pun … Read More