In Public Relations We Trust

One of the biggest Public Relation gaffes in recent history was the statements sent out after the BP oil spill in April, 2010. Statements were made by the company that were inaccurate and revealed later as such. BP also allowed too many of their workers to make comments on the topic instead of letting a public relations agency handle the media fire-storm they were dealing with. these public relation screw-ups along with the companies lackadaisical efforts to contain the spill helped give BP one of the most, if not the most, infamous names in the industry.

One of the biggest problems BP had while dealing with the aftermath of the oil spill, were the numerous accounts of misinformation BP gave out.

Testimonies such as BP stating their Operating management system was the “cornerstone” of safety practices in the industry, led to the discovery that they cut costs in this area for the Deepwater Horizon. With my intellectual prowess in the Public Relations industry, I read a whole chapter about it, I would have told BP to come out with the truth. This day in age information is too easy to get a hold of, so any form of communication distilling these cost cuts would have a high percentage chance of being leaked to the people. Instead of trying to hide this, I would have spun it to be a major mistake that the company can use to make their safety procedures better. Although it doesn’t take blame away from BP, it shows that they are willing to accept responsibility and change their mindsets to prevent similar disasters. Along with using truth to give the company a more honorable position on the topic, I would prevent any of the workers from speaking about the disaster. The employees that spoke out on the oil spill were not directly affected from the spill, as they held higher positions with the company that kept them from working directly with the Deepwater Horizon. so their statements were too disconnected from the affected families and wound up coming off as offensive. This could have easily been avoided by just not letting them speak out.

Lastly I would have tried to take the lethargic efforts of the containment and shifted the focus on the fact that BP was trying to actually contain the oil, and that they were working on ways to contain the spill that would have the least impact on the environment.

Watching BP’s debacle shows just how important public relations agencies are to companies. After all, a major aspect of their job is to shed positive light during negative events affecting companies. Trust me, they do a much better job than your companies million dollar CEO would.

Keywords: BP Oil Spill, BP, Oil, Spill, Public, Relations, Deepwater Horizon.