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BP faces criticism from PR experts
A protester outside of the British Petroleum (BP) company offices in Chicago, Ill.
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Kai Ryssdal: The CEO of BP has the quote of the day today this Friday. Tony Hayward told a British newspaper that the big oil spill is "tiny" in relation to a "very big ocean." It has, as you can imagine, gotten a lot of play. But with reports that the spill is far larger than earlier estimates, it goes to illustrate a more relevant point. The enormous public relations hole that BP keeps digging for itself.
Here's our senior business correspondent Bob Moon.
BOB MOON: The president himself has called it "the BP oil spill," and today, Mr. Obama stepped up his public criticism with a blast at the blame-shifting during a recent congressional hearing.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The American people could not have been impressed with that display, and I certainly wasn't.
Phil Butler is a marketing consultant at Pamil-Visions PR. He says BP's initial willingness to do the right thing has given way to legal language.
PHIL BUTLER: BP started with sort of a passive-submissive stance, which is a little bit the way they should have been. Like, "We're really sorry, we're doing everything we can." And then they've shifted to -- it's almost like the company got mad or angry.
That's not playing well with the president or the public.
But Brian Dobson of Dobson Communications thinks he understands what's behind it: The tension between BP's image-makers, and its lawyers. He points to the promise from BP CEO Tony Hayward to pay "all legitimate claims." Hawyard added that he expects a flood of illegitimate claims because -- he told an interviewer -- "This is America. Come on."
BRIAN DOBSON: That may be something that happens and is likely to happen in any situation, but to say that in the midst of a crisis!
PR expert Phil Butler says the lawyers have their job to do, but right now, BP executives should pay attention to their image.
BUTLER: The PR firm is Brunswick Group, which is one of the most powerful PR firms in the world. Somebody there, it would seem to me, would be saying, "Hey, wait a minute. We need to get away from the bean counters and the attorneys, and think about the long term." You can't worry about a trillion dollars if you're going to lose $10 trillion."
Butler says a day in court won't matter if no one's buying BP's gas.
I'm Bob Moon for Marketplace.
Put a drop of motor oil in a bucket of water and watch what happens. Would you drink the water in the bucket?
My point... it only takes a tiny amount to fowl things up good.
Would the the BP CEO accept a pint of refined gasoline or BP Motor Oil being placed in his swimming pool? A pint is tiny amount in comparison to the water in the pool.
And it is true that not one bird has been injured by this... that is ... if you don't count Brown Pelicans, cranes, and those little brown sand piper things (which have been cleaned up and will be returned to the wild) and if you ignore the CNN and FOXNEWS footage of turles and dolphines swimming in tghe light sweet brown oozzss.... and the footable from the camera that one of the reports put under the water near some of the other islands..
What is true is the weather has been favorable for combating the spill.. Winds seem to turn at just the right moment to keep the oil at sea...or at least most of it... the initial days of harsh weather helped to promote an urgancy that may be paying off.
But the fact of the matter is that some where between 5 million and 50 million gallons of crude are mixed into the Gulf.. And over three hundred thousand gallons of dispersent (something like a harsh dishsoap).... sooner or later.. that will hit the beach....
But then there are those who believe that oil is natural material routinely found in the ocean and that nature will clean this up in no time at all.
When the BP executive said that the spill was "tiny" in comparison to the ocean, he had a point. From the way the media, including this program, has been reporting on the spill, you'd think the oil was halfway up the Mississippi by now and innumerable birds and other animals were being washed up on the beaches with oil clogging their feathers and fur for the past week. But the last I heard they'd seen one, repeat *one*, bird with a condition that *might* be connected to the spill, and I was *still* hearing about containment booms blown back to shore and hurriedly moved back to place.
BP is happy to take the profits when the USA's lack of regulation is in their favor... Now that the USA legal begals will be after their legal begals, they are ducking for cover (vebal positioning). It doesn't matter if it is 5,000 barrels or 70,000 barrels, either way it only takes a tiny amount to ruin small businesses, people's lives, kill off hundreds of thousands of creatures, and destroy habitate for many decades. Welcome to the flip side of deregulation... lawsuits! And lots of them.
The use of the term "legitimate claims" did not suggest to me that BP would be deluged with frivolous claims, but that BP was stating that, from then on, they were prepared to contest each claim, pitting their deep pockets and legal guns against any and all. Including the Prez and Senate.
