And what would the great David Ogilvy recommend?
Been following the Deepwater Horizon disaster and watching as it develops.
Needless to say, oil major BP has something of a PR problem to deal with as well as the more serious issue of capping the Deepwater Horizon oil well.
To give BP credit, they have put up a site with updates on the steps they’re taking to get on top of the problem and clean up the mess (“BP – Gulf Of Mexico Response”).
There’s some good information on the site, but I can’t help feeling that BP are missing an opportunity to be a little more aggressive in getting out their side of the story.
Now, I’m not suggesting that they try and sugar coat the problem and try and make the situation seem less serious than it is. If a mistake has been made, then the right thing to do is own up and clean up the mess.
But as I watch the news coming in, it seems to me that there’s quite a dramatic and compelling story to be told about the efforts to get the situation under control.
We’ve had movie director James Cameron offering to lend his submarines to assist, the US government wanting to send in a team of nuclear scientists and the inherent drama of a difficult underwater operation.
I’m wondering where is today’s equivalent of the legendary Red Adair, the legendary oil well firefighter?
Anyway, my point is that this situation would lend itself to a series of long copy ads where BP could tell the story of the operation to bring the situation under control.
It’s newsworthy, it would get people’s attention and the beauty of a long copy ad, of course, is that you have the space to tell the full story.
Now this wouldn’t magically make all BP’s PR problems go away. But, let’s face it, big oil companies aren’t generally loved by the general public so I suspect that the negative impact will be less than you might think from some of the hysterical press coverage.
And, as I said, BP would at least have the opportunity to get their side of the story across.
And David Ogilvy?
Well, I suspect the great man would have been ideally suited to a campaign like this. In “Ogilvy On Advertising” there are a number of great examples of and tips on the effective use of advertising to turn the tide of hostile public opinion.
One of the key points? For a campaign to be effective it needs to be sustained.
Let’s see how BP handle the situation in the months ahead.
UPDATE (24 May 2010):
Here’s an interesting article from The Economist about the operation to stop the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
‘The Gulf Oil Spill – What Lies Beneath”
Gives a good idea I think of the potential for long copy “advertorial” style ads as I discuss above. Also, once this has been cleared up, BP would be in a good position to publish some white papers on “lessons learned” and how they are doing everything they can to make things safer in future.
Sunoj says
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