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■ IN DEPTH Oil giant’s ‘green’ ambitions in tatters
BP has been widely criticised for its handling of an enormous oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico. Can the brand recover? Josh Colley reports
What happened? On 30 April, BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico filling the sky in black smoke while oil flowed into the ocean around 52 miles from the southern coast of the US.
BP was unable to stem what could be as much as 210,000 gallons of oil leaking each day. The UK fuel company was publicly criticised by US President Barack Obama and even the personal presence of company chief executive Tony Hayward in the US failed to mitigate the damage.
Why it matters? Following Toyota’s Q1 recall crisis, BP has found the cornerstone of its modern identity undermined. At the turn of the millennium, the company aligned itself with a greener world through a revamped flower shaped logo and a company slogan ‘Beyond Petroleum’. It has since failed to live up to that billing and was already a Greenpeace target for plans to drill in Canadian tar sands.
BP’s plight has followed a similar pattern to Toyota’s. Both companies were deemed slow to act but it is often difficult to manage a crisis quickly thanks to the speed of the internet. For
M&M VIEWPOINT
Rebranding is an important step in the lifespan of any company, especially those hoping to remain relevant to consumer’s needs and concerns. A disaster of this kind will always cause anger but the modern expectation for responsible practice has increased the
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emotions involved. As Toyota would testify the power of crisis management is vital and so far BP is failing the deal with the tide of negativity. The lasting effect of the tragedy will act as a reminder to consumers worldwide of BP’s failure to deal with the problem quickly.
Four weeks in, criticism of BP’s handling of the incident grew, with the US expressing disatisfaction with the clean-up operation. Around $32.7bn was shed from BP’s
stock market value before reports emerged that a deal in 2004 with the rig owner Transocean to change equipment had raised the risk of an accident. BP was also targeted by a Greenpeace campaign encouraging people to redesign the company logo to reflect the eco-failure. The oil spill is expected to render areas of the US coastline uninhabitable for a generation. ○
Toyota, industry recalls are a common occurrence and it quickly embarked on an ad campaign to alleviate pressure, but BP has deemed it better to minimise ad activity. While Toyota was able to bounce back from its crisis with a huge upturn in profits to over $2bn, any recovery for BP is likely to require a long-term strategy. The incident also shows the pitfalls
a company faces across international markets. BP pledged a series of grants of up to $25m to the governors of affected states. However, this is unlikely to alleviate much of the ill-feeling from a patriotic nation. It’s doubtful that a US company would have received the same level of criticism as Toyota and BP. ○
We read it all so you don’t have to
Greenpeace is on the attack through a public competition We are committed to providing the
information the American people need to understand the environmental impact from the spill and the response steps that
have been taken BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward in a statement
Timeline • 20 APRIL Deepwater Horizon explodes
• 2 MAY US president Obama announces that BP will foot the bill for the oil spill
• 4 MAY BP officials testifying at the US congress admit leak figure could be as high as 60,000 barrels a day
• 11 MAY Rig owners Transocean accused of using faulty safety equipment at Deepwater Horizon by BP
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• 24 MAY Reports emerge that the US government is considering removing BP from the clean-up operation
M&M Q2 2010 7
Photography: Greenpeace UK
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