Deepwater Horizon exposes BP’s PR strengths and weaknesses: Company lacked critical tools in aftermath of oil-rig disaster

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to examine BP’s communications response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which caused 11 deaths and a huge oil spillage in the Gulf of Mexico.

Design/methodology/approach

It draws on such secondary sources as newspapers, audiovisual material and social-network sites.

Findings

It claims that BP lacked some of the tools needed for an effective communications response to the disaster and that the company made mistakes in, for example, putting out a series of advertisements during the clean-up operation.

Practical implications

It puts forward the view that companies ought to have a well-rehearsed crisis-communication strategy that they can easily adapt to the particular circumstances of a given disaster.

Social implications

It looks at some of the things that BP got right, including its Internet response to the crisis.

Originality/value

It emphasizes the importance of good communication strategies when disaster strikes.

Citation

Pollitt, D. (2014), "Deepwater Horizon exposes BP’s PR strengths and weaknesses: Company lacked critical tools in aftermath of oil-rig disaster", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 22 No. 7, pp. 23-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/HRMID-10-2014-0138