Apologetic ad campaign fails to placate an angry public

AN apologetic advertising campaign by BP for causing the biggest oil spill in US history has earned the company more criticism than sympathy as the pollution spreads across the US Gulf Coast from Louisiana into Alabama and Florida.

The new radio, TV, online and print adverts feature BP chief executive Tony Hayward pledging to fix the damage caused by the gush of crude oil unleashed by an April 20 drilling rig explosion that killed 11 people. He says the company will honour claims and “do everything we can so this never happens again”.

The adverts have been criticised by US President Barack Obama, who said the money should be spent on clean-up efforts and on compensating fishermen and small business owners who have lost their jobs because of the spill, and to help residents and visitors of the Gulf Coast, where some beaches have been blackened by the oil and others remain threatened.

“Their best advertising is if they get this cap (in place) and they get everything cleaned up. All you’ve got to do is do your job and that’s going to be plenty of good advertising,” said Grover Robinson, chairman of the Escambia County Commission in the Florida Panhandle. He was referring to BP’s efforts to place a cap over the gushing pipe to capture some of the flow of oil.

BP spokesman Robert Wine said in an email that “not a cent” has been diverted from the oil spill response to pay for the ad campaign. He said he did not know its cost.

“All available resources are being deployed and efforts continue at full strength,” he wrote.

BP estimates that it will spend about $84 million (about €70m) to compensate for lost wages and profits caused by the spill. The company has promised to pay all legitimate claims and no claim has yet been rejected, Wine said.

Shortly after the television and online version of the advert begins, Hayward speaks to the camera, saying: “The Gulf spill is a tragedy that never should have happened.”

Hayward then narrates over images of uncontaminated marshes and healthy pelicans. Clean-up crews walk with refuse bags on white sand beaches as he touts the oil giant’s response efforts: 30 planes and more than 1,300 boats deployed, along with thousands of workers at no cost to taxpayers.

The advert’s imagery clashes with disturbing news photographs published recently of pelicans coated in oil, some immobilised by the gunk, others struggling with crude dripping from their beaks and wings.

“To those affected and your families, I’m deeply sorry,” Hayward says.

As the advert fades out to show BP’s website and volunteer hotline, he says: “We will get this done. We will make this right.”

In the Florida Panhandle, the adverts have been received about as well as the sticky tar balls and rust-coloured froth that began washing ashore on Friday.

Public-relations experts said BP’s advertising blitz seems premature and a little shallow. BP missed an opportunity to shift focus away from criticism of the company and toward its strategy for cleaning up the spill, said Gene Grabowski, a senior vice president with Levick Strategic Communications.

“The one element they seem to be missing is laying out a plan for what they’re going to do... what’s missing is a concrete plan or vision for what they plan to do next,” he said.