Reversal Of A PR Catastrophe -- BP's [Very Expensive] Magic...

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This is neither an article about desperate politicians, corporate thievery at a global level, green business, or our world's precious ecosystems and those who are affected by them [in terms of earning a living] and in terms of nutrition and real-world survival, nor about morality of any sort. It is about how a company turns a disaster into a marketing and branding opportunity.

An amazingly engineered reversal of fortune.

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British Petroleum (BP), the folks who probably committed the most heinous crime against the world's ecology and environmental balance due to callousness, carelessness are a Mad Marketing case study in publicity meltdown damage control. We can all become better PR experts, promoters and advertisers by following their audacious but viable example.

Considering that the job of the Publicity, Promotion, Branding and Advertising departments occasionally becomes (after an incredible global multi-media meltdown) either 'building a pyramid out of radioactive excrement' [it even glows at night!] or 'squeezing a trawler full of lemons to make enough lemonade to serve an entirely disenchanted nation,' BP has managed, with enviable success to turn tar into diamonds.

I won't make any statement of personal opinion about the ethics or true motives of BP (only that "ethics" seem to be conspicuously, almost arrogantly absent, and that "motives" could really be reduced to the singular "motive": "Maximize company profits despite any collateral damage, provided that the damage can be paid for by some third party outside of the company, or simply disregarded....oops! I've impaired my objectivity by accidentally tipping you off as to my secret opinion....darn).

We're hiring wells, drilling and subsurface professionals now
At BP, we're committed to America's economy and energy security. Our operations in the Gulf of Mexico are key to this. It's here that deepwater experts like you are working to drive industry standards forward and applying their invaluable experience to achieve operational excellence.Are you up for the challenge?

But wait! There's more...

What's even better than this type of incredible PR turnaround (it reminds me of a neurosurgeon smacking me in the head with a golf club and then telling me, as I drift into a coma... "I'm going to give you a free EEG and take care of you for FREE also!"), is the way clever politicos (in this case, US President Obama, who is doing miserably in the public polls and is desperate to accelerate any economic or employment recovery by any means) will even leverage them to their own political advantages! Please read the following brief excerpt from Truthout.org:

Gulf Reopens for Drilling as Obama Administration Accused of Low-Balling Effects of Spill

Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "As the Obama administration announces the launch of its Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future ... a scientific integrity complaint alleges that officials 'manipulated' scientific data about the effects of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil leak. Nearly two years after the March 2010 spill, the administration's new policy plans to open 38 million acres offshore of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to possible development in June 2012. The area will be available to deepwater drilling."

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Just turn on the television and you'll be bombarded with commercials which feature plain folks in working clothes (no corporate suits) telling Americans and the world that "We are here for you, and we'll stay here to make things right!"

You'll even see some Louisiana shrimpers and fishermen (fisherpersons) speaking highly about BP giving them financial aid and support...and that business is "jes' as good as before." Stockholm Syndrome? Nope! Just ordinary people who like the idea of being on television, or have been offered a 'speaking honorarium.'

Turn on your computer or smartphone (figuratively speaking, as it might be on right now) and see BP advertising how many new jobs it is creating, and that it is actively recruiting engineers, and other specialists.

Their are now even loads of ads or promotional puff pieces about how BP is investing in the study of marine biology, maritime ecology, environmental conservation all manner of "unbiased" and "Humanitarian" efforts in order to make our home planet {for most of my readers} a far, far better place.

Their persistent, insistent conversion of a major public relations catastrophe (as well as a potential legal, regulatory and financial disaster) into a wonderful public relations, marketing and re-branding/ re-imaging opportunity is Mad Marketing at its amoral best -- and, with no direct admission of guilt or genuine apologies!

BP has done more than damage control in turning a defeat into a PR fest - they have performed marketing alchemy, turning pollution into psychological nutrition. You would think that these privateers had become (and perhaps always had been) philanthropists.

Hate the company if you will; but respect the ingenious, tenacious reversal of misfortune.

Douglas E. Castle for MAD MARKETING TACTICS!