Effective Crisis Handling: Bp Oil Spill

On the night of April 20, 2010, BP’s oil drilling rig exploded off the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, over 1.5 million gallons of oil leaked into the Gulf over a three month period. This was considered the worst environmental disaster in history, resulting in over 8,000 dead species and billions of dollars worth of beach damages. BP created a restoration website to address public concerns and restore company reputation. The BP website uses a strategic visual and verbal strategy of repeating the theme of recovery to persuade viewers of BP’s heroic efforts, smartly uses a visual strategy of images of clear blue waters to show its successful clean-up efforts, and effectively uses an aural strategy of CEO testimonials addressing new safety initiatives to show its number one priority of public safety.

The BP website uses a strategic visual and verbal strategy of repeating the theme of recovery to persuade viewers of BP’s heroic efforts. After the oil spill, BP received backlash from the media and “the public's perception of BP took a huge hit. From that point forward, nothing that BP did or said was viewed as credible” (Freeman, 2010). It is important for BP to fix its reputation and portray itself in a positive light. The home page smartly contains the word “recovery” over 10 times which highlights BP’s role in saving the environment versus causing the incident. Under the “Early Restoration Projects” tab, the website addresses BP’s response to the oil spill by stating, “Early restoration projects are designed to accelerate efforts to restore natural resources…that were injured as a result of the Deepwater Horizon accident”. BP strategically begins the sentence and places emphasis on “Restore”, but puts little focus on the oil spill by addressing it as an “accident” to appear heroic in saving the environment, rather than the perpetrator that originally caused the spill. BP continues to persuade the audience of its appearance as a hero of the crisis by including an image under the “Deepwater Horizon accident and response” tab containing a picture of a ship in the Gulf of Mexico arriving to install the capping equipment to stop the spill. BP strategically provides a picture of its recovery efforts rather than the damage of the spill to put focus on BP’s selfless efforts to save the environment. BP smartly uses word repetition and pictures concerning “recovery” to persuade the public of its heroic efforts.

BP cleverly uses a visual strategy of images of clear blue waters to show its successful clean-up efforts. BP faced criticism for its lack of successful clean-up efforts after the spill. According to the New York Times, “The Obama administration … publicly chastise(d) BP America for its handling of the spreading oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, calling the oil company’s current resources inadequate to stop what is unfolding into an environmental catastrophe” (Robertson