Crisis Communiqué From the Gulf

Words of the Day

“It’s a setback, and now we will go back into operation and show how this technology can work.” – BP Managing Director Bob Dudley

Bad BP Bot Dents Oil Giant Image Further

Blame the latest round of bad BP PR on an errant robot.  And we’re not talking about the former BP chief who left his daily duties to catch a yacht race off the coast of England.

The great Gulf oil spill of 2010 just got greater – and with it another spurt of disastrous publicity – when a remote robot bumped into a vent on the makeshift pipeline cap. 

Engineers had to remove the cap and turn off the system, which had captured 29,000 gallons an hour.  That spewed up to an additional 290,000 gallons into the already tainted waters. 

WordSmith wonders when the nightmare will end!

The latest problem with the nine-week fiasco came as thick pools of oil washed up on Pensacola Beach in Florida and the Obama administration moved to resurrect a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling.  Not exactly the picture of positive PR!

BP now has the cap back in place, thank goodness, and is continuing to pump oil from the leak site. 

Stay tuned to this real life comic strip as the bad press keeps gushing.

Golden Mic

Each week, Wordsmith will bestow a Golden Mic Award to the person, group or company in the court of public opinion that best exemplifies the tenets of solid PR, marketing and advertising – and those who don’t.  Stay tuned … and step-up to the mic!

The WordSmith News Bureau is based at Deane Smith Media Innovations, a full-service PR, marketing and advertising agency.  Got PR?  Need marketing strategy? Ad consulting?  Message Wordsmithing?  Creative & online initiatives? Reach the WordSmith at wordsmith@deanesmithmedia.com