By Carl Bagh: Subscribe to Carl's RSS feed
June 8, 2010 12:40 PM EDT
As BP sweats to clean up the oil spill in Gulf of Mexico, it is simultaneously waging a public relations (PR) war, trying to fend a wave of negative attention, by buying search phrases like “oil spill” on Google and Yahoo.
When the phrase “oil spill” is typed on Google or Yahoo, the immediate result guides one to BP’s “Gulf of Mexico response”, its official page dedicated to giving information about its attempt to curtail the spill.
Search engines – especially Google and Yahoo, are the first point of contact for anyone looking for related information in a crisis situation. Thus BP’s PR strategy is pretty straight forward.
While a host of companies resort to this strategy in crisis situation, BP has received flak from many critics who condemned the move as unethical.
BP claims its strategy is to primarily help those who are most affected by the spill, by way of providing them accurate information, right forms and key people for contact.
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Some analysts who consider it a fair-play, point to the fact that the advertisements appearing through the search clearly highlight that it’s a BP site and thus individuals can voluntarily choose to skip or access the site.
The PR effort follows a backlash that BP received from President Obama, who termed its advertisement effort as lavish in view of the costs incurred due to the spill.
BP Announces 14 Percent Rise in Profits, Raises DividendThe dividend rise marks the firm's first since the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
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