As the BP oil spill and environmental disaster continues, I find myself having almost daily conversations with friends and colleagues involved in the intertwined worlds of marketing, PR and social media about BP. Their strategy (or apparent lack thereof) in dealing with the crises (both the environmental one and the public relations one) is one hot topic. Many professionals that I’ve discussed this with wouldn’t want to touch BP or their business with a 10-foot pole. Others, always in search of a challenge, would be psyched about the opportunity to get involved and make a difference.
AdAge is conducting poll – you can log in via this link and take it if you’re interested. The voting ends tomorrow, so go do it now, then see how the results have changed from the results you see in the image above, which were generated when I took the poll.
One person not interested in going to work for BP any time soon – wait, make that never – is Leroy Stick, the person behind the infamous @BPGlobalPR Twitter account. In an interview with AdAge, Stick says it all: ” This isn’t PR nightmare, it’s an actual nightmare.” And, responding to the question about who BP should hire to replace their PR department with, Stick stated, “Nobody, they should halt the entire PR operation. They should hire people like Professor Rick Steiner to come up with real, responsible solutions to this real problem. Of course their publicity is going to be bad, but if they actually fix the problem the bad press could turn into good press.”
How about you, my industry friends … would you want to go to work for BP … today? Would you welcome the opportunity to help them find solutions to help turn bad press into good press or would you rather steer clear? Can’t wait to hear your thoughts.
And by the way, if you’ve not yet read this post, featuring SomaCow’s @orlandojamie and her amazing BP Parody Video, you are missing out. Go do it – NOW!