BP: Beyond Petroleum Turns Out to be Right

Does Crisis Advertising Ever Work?

Seeing the BP ad in Thursday’s Washington Post reminded me of the Toyota ad from months ago. This most recent full page BP ad in major U.S. newspapers attempted to pacify the public with an assurance of what BP is doing to take responsibility for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. 

We will get it done.

We will make this right.

BP, it’s too late. 45 days after the oil spill they are still out to convince the public of their commitment to fixing the leak and cleaning up the spill by quantifying their efforts. This is not the first ad that BP has run since the spill, but it continues to boggle the mind that they are spending money on ineffective and insincere advertising. People don’t trust anything the company says at this point, and the ads are an insult.

I continue to be amazed that companies like BP don’t seem to have a credible, professional crisis communication plan. In the case of BP, not only did they not have an effective communication plan but they also didn’t seem to have a workable PLAN B (or Plan C, D or E) in case of an oil leak.

The latest BP television spot also began airing yesterday.

I wish instead of spending tens of millions of dollars on uninspired and unconvincing advertising that will likely not change anyone's mind about the company or what has occurred, they would instead invest that money in stopping the leak and cleaning up the Gulf. I fear we have only begun to see the effects of the environmental and economic impact to the U.S.