BP, government continue attempts to shape oil spill story
BP's attempts to shape the public response to the oil spill hasn't worked out that well. Of course, the dominant reason the public is still furious at the oil giant is due to the hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf. But BP's attempts at damage control are doing nothing to tamp anger, and in some cases are just raising more ire. Even worse, governmental organizations seem to be taking the same tack.
Starting yesterday, BP began purchasing search keywords at the three major search engines, Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Searching for certain keywords, including "oil spill," now net a sponsored ad with a link to "Learn more about how BP is helping." Those ads aren't cheap; the keywords purchased are among the most popular, and thus most expensive, topics searched today.
The link itself leads to a BP site with press releases that are, of course, carefully worded. They explain how many gallons of oil were collected, instead of how many gallons leaked out, for example. The site is also littered with photos of, as Wired put it, "workers in bright yellow boots clean[ing] a relatively untainted beach in the sun in front of rolling blue waves, as a not-oily sea bird struts past." That's in contrast to the now-famous AP images of sea birds rendered unrecognizable by huge glops of oil.
Even worse, the New York Times ran a story about reporters being repeatedly denied access to the spill, especially photographers. Representatives from both BP and governmental agencies (including the FAA and Department of Homeland Security) claimed these instances are exceptions, and that any such situation is due to safety reasons. But the anecdotes from several different publications, in which journalists have been denied access only after revealing their profession, say otherwise.
A CBS news crew was threatened with arrest for trying to film an oil-strewn public beach, about which the Coast Guard later expressed "disappointment." Senator Bill Nelson of Florida obtained permission for a group of journalists to accompany him on a trip through the Gulf, only to be told later by the Department of Homeland Security that no journalists would be allowed.
Whether benign (search engine advertising) or disturbing (barred journalists), the attempts to shape the oil spill story may have had the opposite of the intended effect.
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com