Be a Seed for Change

BUSINESS — BP LAUNCHES ‘AGGRESSIVE’ SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN, BUT RESTRICTS FEEDBACK: Facing public outrage over the devastation its oil gusher has caused in the Gulf, BP has been making a major public relations push over the past few weeks to burnish its image. The company began buying space on search-engine results pages for oil-related search terms, and it earned criticism for lavishing $50 million on radio, TV, and print ads featuring CEO Tony Hayward pledging to “do everything we can so this never happens again.” Now, BP is launching an “aggressive” social media campaign employing Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. A BP spokesperson boasts of how the social venues are “more direct than other channels.” BP’s sophisticated campaign “would make most social media strategists proud,” but the AdWeek report reveals the hollowness of the outreach. On Facebook, the company only accepts comments from people who “like” BP, and the “extensive commenting policy…warns that any ‘ad hominem attacks’ will be removed.” Meanwhile, comments are disabled completely on the company’s YouTube channel. BP shutting down feedback is ironic considering the oil giant claims to be actively soliciting ideas from the public on how to help resolve the crisis in the Gulf. Although BP has received tens of thousands of ideas, it quickly became clear that the company was ignoring the suggestions and that the effort was largely a PR stunt. Many inventors who have submitted suggestions complain BP “isn’t taking their suggestions seriously enough,” and overall, BP has been widely denounced for spending millions on advertising to rehabilitate its image while it should be spending that money to rehabilitate the Gulf.