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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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Every unexpected and sudden event (crisis) operates as a threat for an organization's reputation. British Petroleum (BP) came face to face with a crisis on 20 April 2010 when an explosion in the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig caused a huge oil spillage in the Gulf of Mexico. The present case study aims to describe BP's serious communication mistakes with its stakeholders managing a serious hit to BP's reputation.

The present case study attempts to provide a detailed outline of BP's communication failures by conducting in-depth investigation of secondary data (newspapers, audiovisual material, social network sites).

BP's crisis communication was a weak link in its crisis management strategy. The lessons to learn are various, both for practitioners and researchers. Practitioners should learn from the leadership, culture and public relations (PR) mistakes made by BP and avoid them in a crisis of their organisation. They should select those strategies that foster their organization's strengths and correct its weaknesses in order to take advantage of external opportunities and counter external threats.

This study could be a valuable asset in communication literature, since BP's PR strategies during this oil spill have not been studied extensively. The communications solutions BP took during the crisis were examined and certain strategies BP should have followed in order to avoid its failed PR plan are suggested, which can help both practitioners and researchers to learn from BP's mistakes and give more attention to communication strategies, which are of critical essence to all crises.