BP’s failures made worse by PR gaffes

HOUSTON – BP is already fighting an oil gusher it can’t contain and watching its mighty market value wither away. Its own bumbling public-relations efforts are making a big mess worse.

Not only has it made a series of gaffes – none greater than the CEO’s complaint that “I’d like my life back” – the company hasn’t even followed its own internal guidelines for damage control after a spill.

Executives have quibbled about the existence of undersea plumes of oil, downplayed the potential damage early in the crisis and made far-too-optimistic predictions for when the spill could be stopped. BP’s steadiest public presence has been the ever-present live TV shot of the untamed gusher.

What BP has lacked, crisis management experts say, has been much of a show of human compassion.

“All crises are personal,” said Richard Levick, who runs a public relations firm, Levick Strategic Communications, that advises companies. “Action and sacrifice is absolutely critical.”

The best move for BP’s image, of course, would be to stop the leak. That has proved difficult enough, with one fix after another failing and estimates of the severity of the spill growing by the week.

Failing a solution, Daniel Keeney, president of a Dallas-based PR firm, suggested putting CEO Tony Hayward in a hard hat and life vest, helping crews contain and clean up the spill.

“You want to get him right in the thick of things, even if he looks somewhat uncomfortable doing it,” Keeney said.

BP has taken a stab at soothing angry Americans, airing a slick, multimillion-dollar national TV spot this week in which Hayward pledges: “We will make this right.” Hayward also promised BP would clean up every drop of oil and “restore the shoreline to its original state.”

And even those efforts violate the company’s own prescription for damage control. Its own spill plan, filed last year with the federal government, says of public relations: “No statement shall be made containing any of the following: promises that property, ecology or anything else will be restored to normal.”

And earlier this week when Wall Street freaked out over the prospect of billions of dollars in BP liabilities and sent its stock to its lowest point since the mid-1990s, the company response was positively tone-deaf.

“The company is not aware of any reason which justifies this share price movement,” the company said early Thursday, after its stock was hammered on New York and European exchanges.

Almost from the beginning, BP has been as unable to control its public message as it has the spill itself.

Hayward was ridiculed for telling reporters “I’d like my life back” earlier in the crisis, remarks the families of some of the 11 men killed in the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig felt were insensitive.

BP’s chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, insisted this week that there were no massive underwater oil plumes in “large concentrations” from the spill. To NBC, he offered that it “may be down to how you define what a plume is here.”

The government had said three tests confirmed oil at levels less than 0.5 parts per million as far as three-fifths of a mile below the surface of the Gulf, at least 40 miles away from the site of the gushing well.

Suttles also predicted the spill would be reduced to a “relative trickle” by early next week. BP later sought to walk the comments back, saying the company was optimistic but that getting the spill to a trickle would take more time.

In the meantime, BP has been buying ads that pop up when people search for information about the oil spill on Google and Yahoo. The ads, which link to BP’s own oil-response sites, typically appear above or to the right of other search results. BP says the idea is to help people on the Gulf find the right forms and people quickly and effectively.

Others suggest it’s a move to steer searchers away from bad press for BP.

Crisis management experts say the only reliable way to repair BP’s badly tarnished image is the obvious one: Plug the hole.