John Peele

Module 5 Assignment

Strategic Communication

Final Project Introduction

[Dr. Dani]

18/12/2022
Introduction
The Deepwater Horizon oil leak, also known as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, was the largest
oceanic oil spill to date. It started on April 20, 2010, when an explosion occurred on the
Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which was located in the Gulf of Mexico about 66 kilometers off the
coast of Louisiana. On April 22, the rig sank. The Deepwater Horizon rig was situated in the
Macondo oil potential in the Mississippi Canyon, a valley on the continental shelf, and belonged
to, was operated by, and leased by the offshore oil drilling corporation Transocean. On the
seafloor, 1,522 meters below the surface, was the oil well that it was placed over. Its depth in the
rock was 5,486 meters. In order to seal the well for eventual usage, contractor Halliburton had
recently built a concrete core; but, on the night of April 20, a surge of natural gas burst through
it, triggering a fire and the deaths of 11 people. 130 million gallons of crude oil were spilled into
the Gulf of Mexico as a result of this catastrophe. The oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico was
caused by poor management and a communications failure by BP and its Macondo well partners,
according to the United States government, and this led to a significant media crisis for BP
(Pallardy, 2020).

This essay analyzes the tactics BP employed to manage the subsequent unfavorable media
coverage. The article also discusses BP's media outreach strategies, including the major and
secondary messaging it utilized.

BP's Public Relations Plan

How not to handle a crisis has been illustrated by BP's response to the disaster. The public was
led to perceive BP as egotistical and callous by BP leaders who admitted wrongdoing and placed
the blame on their external contractors. There is no one who wants this thing over more than I
do, according to the CEO at the time, Tony Hayward, who frequently makes cryptic remarks in
public. You know, I wish I had my life back. Images of Hayward competing in a yacht race only
48 hours after a confrontational cross-examination on the oil spill by a US congressional
committee led to harsh disapproval of BP from both the British and the American public.
Hayward also argued that the ecological impact of the spillage would be minimal. Despite the
fact that BP has shareholders on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and conducts the majority of its
business here in the United States, most Americans still view the company as being foreign
(Associated Press, 2010).
In an attempt to gain over the general populace, BP asserted that they would air an expensive
prime time advertisement on national TV in which the CEO pledged to make things right as their
primary message. The CEO also stated that BP would get rid of all oil drops and restore the
seashore and environment to their previous conditions as part of their secondary message.
President Barack Obama subsequently made a statement claiming that the money spent on airing
the TV commercial should have gone into restoration efforts and compensating local residents
and businesses impacted by the spill. The advertisement revealed that BP was unable to adhere to
its own policies regarding damage control measures. The standard stipulates that no statement
should contain words like "repair of property" or "ecology," which are found in BP's spillage
plan, which was filed with the federal government a year prior to the catastrophe (McClam &
Weber, 2010). When someone searches for information about Deepwater Horizon on Yahoo or
Google, BP will also invest in pop-up internet advertisements. According to BP, the goal was to
make it easier for the general populace in the Gulf to locate and readily fill out the proper forms.
However, the public saw this as an effort to dissuade people from reading unfavorable press.
According to this plan, BP used electronic media to help manage its problem (Shogren, 2011)

What ought to BP to have done differently?

Public relations experts contend that the only consistent course of action BP should have taken to
fix the controversy and recover the damaged reputation was to immediately stop the spilling by
merely installing a cap on the leaking well. Only after three months was the leak stopped, and it
took almost five months before the oil well was ultimately declared to have been effectively
capped. PR experts contend further that BP's handling of the spillage disaster was inadequate, as
was their handling of media interactions. This argument has earned notoriety as one of the most
eloquent examples of how poor communications can exacerbate a crisis. Further affirming this,
PR experts say that it was a result of a lack of openness, honesty, and consideration for the
victims. When managing a crisis of this magnitude, it's important to be proactive, pay attention
to stakeholders' concerns, and respond to them as they arise in addition to managing the
ecological situation (Shogren, 2011).

Despite BP's extensive resources, BP's inability to contain the disaster in a timely manner baffled
many parties. This was made worse by BP's delay in informing the stakeholders, as BP
completely neglected to do so when announcing its crisis management strategy at the outset.
Social networking sites stepped up to fill this gap quite fast as external parties looked to social
media to quickly disseminate information about BP's alleged mistakes in handling the oil leak.
Because BP underestimated the power of the new social media, it was less able to influence the
public's perception of the message being spread. The early failure of BP to effectively leverage
social media is consistent with previous research showing that PR practitioners have generally
been slow to include social media methods into their organizations' general crisis management
plans (Veil, Buehner, & Palenchar, 2011). Intriguingly, while a few firms appear to recognize the
growing importance of social media and brand management, the majority have yet to include
plans to deal with this new wave. A study also shows that almost one-third of chief
communications officers (CCOs) worldwide admitted that their companies were unprepared for a
social media-based brand reputational threat that their companies had encountered or would have
faced in the future (Shandwick & Spencer, 2010). Similarly, despite its growing popularity, the
relationship between social media and the study of crisis management is still in its infancy and is
still seen as a developing field of study. As a result, it is crucial to comprehend the structures,
complexity, and constantly changing global network system of which these new media are now a
part. This is crucial in the age of mass communication, when companies are increasingly held
accountable for how their actions affect or have an impact on the public (Padgett, Cheng, &
Parekh, 2013).

Final Thoughts and Recommendations

This is a typical example of a scenario that demonstrates the need for moral and ethical concepts
like responsibility and accountability to underpin organizational strategy in crisis management.
The public's outrage and displeasure over the tragedy were not just directed at the oil spill, but
also at BP for failing to defuse the problem honestly and with any sense of regret on the part of
the executive; most notably, there was no consideration for the victims of the spill. The failure to
respond to the disaster quickly demonstrates the need for organizations to include crisis
management into their organizational culture. BP ought to have concentrated more on stopping
the spill and making sure that the stakeholders were handled sensitively and humbly in a
proactive manner. The CEO of BP's hubris did very little to control the outrage from the public.
Reference
Assoc. Press (2010). BP's CEO is at a boat racing while oil spills into the Gulf. Herald of New
Zealand

Pallardy, (2020). (2020). Oil leak from Deepwater Horizon. Britannica's Encyclopedia.
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Shogren, (2011). (2011). Bp: A prime illustration of how to handle PR incorrectly. A textbook
example of how not to handle PR was retrieved on March 21, 2021, from
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Spencer & Shandwick (2010). The CCO III is rising. the rising cco 3 was retrieved on March 21,
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By McClam and Weber (2010). Failures by BP made worse by errors by Pr.

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