When PR Doesn't Matter Anymore: The BP Oil Explosion

BP engineers have been unable to stem the torrent of oil gushing by the hundreds of thousands of gallons into the Gulf of Mexico each day following the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig last month. Weeks later, the BP oil spill is still a environmental catastrophe and PR nightmare. Tar and oil are still being found in new places, more wildlife is dying every day and BP still has not fixed the spill. Shouldn't companies have a contingency plan that prepares them to quickly fix their wrong doing and respond to the public well when a worst case scenario happens?

Of course a company should! This is a perfect example of a corporate responsibility and public relations disaster. Regardless of how BP responded right away, apologizing, taking responsibility, trying to fix the spill, etc. Yet, BP hasn't fixed the problem! That's when a strong brand history and an immediate PR crisis communications plan just don't matter anymore. PR needs to be followed up with action. This why there needs to be a complete contingency and response plan for every company. Especially for something that truly could happen. For example, if you're an oil company, you should probably have a response for an oil spill at any drilling area of yours.

I was angered after watching Mike Williams 60 Minutes story on the spill. According to Williams the BP explosion was the result of the company's desire speed up drilling and to save money. Drilling faster actually made the bottom of the well split open.

Williams story told that just four weeks prior to the explosion, the well's most vital piece of safety equipment was damaged when a worker accidentally bumped into a joystick that applied hundreds of thousands of pounds of force onto a closed blow out preventer which was closed by a rubber gasket called an annular. Congress is currently looking into other things incidents that occured at BP leading up to the spill which is becoming known as the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

In my opinion, it will be amazing if BP can 'dig' out of this huge hole they're in. I'm not sure they'll have the money of the customers to stay in business after everything is finally cleaned up.

Would you Brand Yourself with your Company Logo?

Most companies prefer staffers to not have any tattoos visible, but at some work places tattoos are being used for branding purposes.

At Anytime Fitness, one employee got the health club chain's purple running man logo tattooed on her upper left arm. She is just one of the more than 200 other employees among the company's nearly 1,300 clubs worldwide who have undergone the needle in the name of Anytime enthusiasm over the past several years. At least 20 of them work at the headquarters in Hastings, Minnesota.

"We bleed purple here at corporate," said CEO Chuck Runyon.

Many times at annual conferences, a tattoo artist is on hand to oblige employees who are feeling particularly dedicated.

While it's common for businesses to hand out temporary tattoos of their logos, this is taking products branding to a very personal, and some may extreme, level.

Starbucks Expands its Seattle's Best Brand to Compete

Starbucks is revamping its Seattle's Best brand by expanding its availability through franchises and a big expansion at other retailers.

The coffee giant is facing increased competition as lower-priced rivals such as: some gas stations like Holiday or Super America and restaurant McDonald's, have copied fancy coffee shop coffees Starbucks made popular, and have priced them significantly lower.

Starbucks just announced that it will increase its availability of Seattle's Best Coffee in 300 AMC Theaters nationwide beginning in July. Seattle's Best will also be offered in Burger Kings across the country by September.

You may have already seen other companies serving Seattle's Best, including Alaska Airlines, Borders bookstores and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

Starbucks and Seattle's Best have been a pair since in 2003.

I think this is a good idea for Starbucks. It would be hard for the Starbucks brand to compete against a company McDonald's, since it would require them to completely change their brand identity to meet those consumers who are buying coffee based on cheaper price. Actually, it would probably hurt Starbucks more if they did do this. However, I believe the Seattle's Best brand can be taken anywhere and can compete against the cheaper priced rivals in the coffee market.

Birth Control Pill Turns 50: The Drastic Ways it has Progressed Women

Ironically, the 50th anniversary of birth control pills landed on Mother's Day, May 9th. The pill has completely changed women's reproductive lives and in doing so affected many other aspects. Since, I believe it's important to talk about. Previous generations of women had larger families, typically five or more kids. Today, families usually have one or two. Further, more babies today are born to women over 35 than to teenagers. This shows that the pill has taken great effect.

The pill has increased a woman's earning potential. By enabling women to delay childbearing, the pill appears to have made women more financially secure. The reason is fairly obvious. Women who get their careers going before having kids are more likely to get the education and work experience needed to get and keep better-paid positions, even if they later take time off to raise kids.

The pill made infertility into an epidemic. Oral contraceptives don't cause infertility; ovulation usually resumes within a month or two after going off the pill. However, the trend toward shifting reproduction from a woman's early 20s (when she's most fertile) to her late 30s or early 40s (when fertility is on the wane) has dramatically increased since the pill became widespread, to the extent that 20 percent of couples contend with the issue.

The pill alleviated many menstrual problems. The pill helps many menstrual cycle problems, like sever cramps, migraines, and excessive bleeding. That's because the pill's withdrawal bleed is actually a fake period, much lighter and fueled by a smaller hormonal dip than normal periods triggered by the ovulation cycle. Pill users actually tend to have less trouble with endometriosis, and they have lower rates of ovarian cancer. However, the risk of blood clots and strokes increase with use of the pill, especially for those who smoke.

The pill opened the door for other hormonal birth control options. Hormonal contraceptives have come a long way in the past 50 years, even the pill today is hardly recognizable to a pharmacist from 1960. The doses of estrogen have declined and the synthetic progesterone component has also changed. Now, there are even pill options that aren't required to be taken daily: patches, vaginal rings, shots and more.

The pill lowered likelihood of unplanned pregnancies and abortions. When used right, the pill's effectiveness rate is about 99 percent. That's far better than older barrier methods. This has eliminated many surprises by allowing women to plan their lives a lot better and be much more prepared for a bundle a joy.

The pill altered women's sex drives and sex lives. Some say that the pill and other hormonal contraceptives quash a woman's natural sexual urges by lowering levels of the 'libido' hormone, testosterone. But, that has never been proven. Some say the opposite. However, the pill is credited for ushering in the secular revolution of the 60s. Without fear of pregnancy, women may have been more ' in the mood.'

The pill inspired the idea for a male pill. Lately, there has been a lot of emphasis on the creation of a male pill. There may be a pill someday, but at this point nothing has made it beyond clinical trials.

Public Relations vs. Publicity

There are two words that surround the industry of public relations that do not do it justice, spin and publicity. Public relations is neither of these things.

Many times consumers think that public relations reps will 'spin' information in order to make their client's information newsworthy or interesting. However, if you are a good PR person you will never tell something that is untrue.

Publicity does not always mean positive media exposure, it just means media exposure. True public relations professionals will create a positive and honest reputation for their client in their market. However, if a company receives one-time positive media exposure the benefits will not last forever.

So, what you should remember about good public relations professionals? They should always be looking for proactive ways to reach out and keep ongoing PR. They should make sure to always build long lasting mutually beneficial relationships between their clients and its target public. They will know their public and understand how to meet their needs and lastly create a dialogue that best reaches them.

The BP Oil Spill PR Catastrophe

BP, the British company, is working frantically to stay ahead of the growing disaster and the blow to its carefully manicured image of environmental responsibility. However, the way in which their image is repaired really depends upon how they handle this whole situation. This whole story makes me extremely upset, especially after seeing the movie Oceans just last week. It's a public relations disaster, especially after all the new CEO has done to redo BP's image. I think it will take people a long time to shake this off their minds, but so far I believe BP has done a decent job (besides their initial downplay of the spill) responding to this crisis and taking responsibility for their mess. I just think their emergency plan has taken too long to activate.

Seeking to blunt criticism of its emergency response, the British oil giant BP vowed Friday to harness all of its resources to battle the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as the company worked frantically to stay ahead of the growing disaster and the blow to its carefully constructed image of environmental responsibility.

Louisiana and federal officials said BP's efforts so far were "not adequate" and that the London company should do more, even ask for help from competitors, to contain the approximately 5,000 barrels of oil leaking each day after last week's sinking of the oil rig Deepwater Horizon.

On Friday BP mounted a spirited defense of its work to seal the leaking oil well and contain the spill, which could surpass the1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska's Prince William Sound as the worst in U.S. history. BP is the majority owner of the oil field and, with its partners, is spending about $7 million a day on the problem while BP's falling stock price has sliced about $25 billion from the company's market value.

BP said it took responsibility for the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and said they will clean it up and pay all necessary and appropriate clean-up costs. "We are determined to fight this spill on all fronts, in the deep waters of the gulf, in the shallow waters and , should it be necessary, on the shore," said BP Group Chief Executive Ton Hayward.

BP has a lot to defend. In recent years, BP has spent heavily to position itself as an environmentally friendly company, redesigning its logo into a green-and-yellow sunburst and advertising its $4-billion alternative-energy push to move "beyond petroleum." In addition, BP has been plagued by safety problems, including a March 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City refinery, which killed 15 workers and injured about 170.

Hayward became CEO only three years ago and has worked hard to restore the company's public image. This week, after an initial bobble in which the company downplayed the size of the leak at about 1,000 barrels a day, BP appears to be doing many things well to avoid outrage, down to framing itself as an ally fighting against a common enemy, experts said.

Federal officials shut down fishing from the Mississippi River to Florida Panhandle on Sunday. Sadly, the environmental disaster is still expected to take at least a week to cut off.