“Brandjacking” BP
We’ve all been following with great sadness the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as it’s now become the U.S.’s worst environmental catastrophe surpassing the Exxon Valdez debacle in Alaska. Without a doubt the public relations folks at BP have their hands full with crisis management, and leadership has lost most of their credibility as they’ve consistently downplayed the severity of the crisis at each step.
One of the world’s largest and richest companies, BP is taking a gigantic hit from which it might never recover. This “Boycott BP” Facebook page has over 220,000 fans urging drivers to bypass BP’s stations and other brands to include motor oil Castrol and am/pm mini marts.
And the bashing continues. In early May, someone smelling an opportunity created a Twitter account with the handle @BPGlobalPR which falsely claims to be authored by the PR people at the real British Petroleum, but in reality skewers the company for their handling of this disaster. Each day, over 100,000 followers are treated to dozens of satirical tweets, each more scathing than the next. And those followers are retweeting the often hilarious posts all over the social media channel. Here’s an example:
“If we’re being accused of being criminals, we want to be tried by a jury of our peers- wealthy execs who don’t give a damn.”
As BP’s reputation and brand gets dragged through the oily mud, it got me thinking about how it should respond to this “brandjacking”. It seems within BP’s rights to have Twitter shut this account down since @BPGlobalPR doesn’t identify itself as a parody as Twitter’s terms of service mandates. But can you imagine the public outcry this move would create? But doing nothing and ignoring @BPGlobalPR doesn’t seem to be the right move either.
Crisis Communications Manager John Taylor thinks the answer is a hybrid. Taylor says that rather than asking Twitter to take down the fake account, it should force @BPGlobalPR to identify itself as a parody. Next, the oil giant should use its official Twitter handle, @BP_America, differently by actually identifying the real people tweeting and writing in a more conversational style. Folks want to converse with real people and not big corporations or brands. Comcast uses Twitter in this way.
So, what do you think? If you were in BP’s shoes, how would you handle this unprecedented crisis?
I agree with John Taylor’s hybrid approach to tackling BP’s social media dilemma and the brand jacking.
However, when asked today about the social media backlash, BP execs responded by stating that they had bigger concerns to deal with like plugging the gulf oil leak. While what the exec said was true in nature, it isn’t the correct communications approach.
As a longtime financial and creative contributor to The Yes Men and their many projects I’ve seen this tactic in action and long before the popular mediaists could easily identify what was really happening. I’m not sure this is of quite the same breed but if Dow Chemical and the WTO are at all useful as models for how to respond to, what many consider justifiable, media terrorism (which I’m not suggesting the obviously satirical tweeting really is) BP will simply not respond in any meaningful way because they don’t have to. Seriously, when was the last time you passed an Exxon offering on moral grounds? Since it’s the next worst oil disaster to what we are seeing at this very second, I can’t help but wonder what never changed so that we find ourselves here again. Asking how BP should handle the PR nightmare they’ve created is akin to asking how we can help Goldman Sachs brainstorm another economic disaster. At least we can all rest knowing that Dawn is still #1 at removing oil from the feather and fur of the yet alive wildlife.
Seems like the fake twitter account may actually be bringing a bit of light to the tragedy. I’m not convinced it’s really hurting BP.
Thanks for the timely topic! Great post!
I think Taylor’s approach sounds about right. It’s a big mistake to disregard it entirely (and Dominos’ learned that the hard way last year), but it’s also not a good idea to waste energy (no pun intended) by trying to have it shut down when so many people are behind it. People are going to be saying bad things (and that’s an understatement) about BP whether or not this account exists, so it’s time to settle down and start addressing them instead of fighting to have the account banned. They should definitely take a leaf out of Comcast’s book like you suggested and start talking to people on an individual level. Maybe then they’ll go from hated corporate entity to a somewhat humanized version.
It’s going to be a long road back, but it’s a start.
Great post Brian! This brings up some great points as to how BP is handling the crisis from a PR standpoint (or lack thereof). As mentioned, this oil leak has surpassed all other environmental catastrophes in the US – yet BP has really taken the backseat and allowed others to speak in their place.
I heard the following at a marketing educational panel a few weeks ago, “If you don’t take charge of your brand, someone else will. And it may be negative.” This seems to be exactly what has occurred with BP. Why not be somewhat proactive, and salvage whats left of the brand? Better late than never, right?