PR blunders of BP following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
In this model, you listened to a story on NPR about the PR blunders of BP following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. What should the firm have learned from the fiasco?
On April 20th, 2010, a BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, causing one of the worst environmental disasters in US history. But according to NPR, BP’s actions have become textbooks examples of how not to do crisis management experts. BP’s executives declared they were not in any way related to the accident but only blamed their contractors and made the company look arrogant and callous.
BP Company mostly had failing solutions to its problems. Daniel Keeney, the president who represented the Dallas-based PR firm, once suggested CEO Tony Hayward in a hard hat and life vest helping crews contain and clean up the spill. After the incident, the way they also tried to lay their information was not well accepted by society. BP bought online ads that pop up when one researches information many people suggested it was a move to steer searchers away from bad press for BP.
The crisis management of BP has gone down in history as one of the most excellent examples of how to ruin a firm is entirely possible by bad communications. Michael Gordon, one of the groups’ strategist, stated that it was due to a combination of lack of transparency, lack of straight-talking and lack of sensitivity to victims within the managerial body led to the explosions.
To conclude, the classic case example of why an organization’s decision making in a crisis should always be based on ethical principles such as accountability and responsibility. The public highly criticized this incident but not only focused on the oil spill, but they majored in the lack of remorse and sincerity from the top management in crisis response majorly due to the lack of sympathy for the victims.