America wants revenge on BP following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill occurred. The typical citizen wants to know the corporate oil giant is employing its resources to repair the catastrophic damage done to jobs, tourism and the ecological balance. The London Telegraph shows just where that money is going. Evidently, BP is spending $ 1 million a week for TV marketing alone. That may go a long way toward mending BP’s corporate image, but the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce committee is looking for more than that.
In four months, $ 1 million and more per month
BP has indicated its intention to cooperate with the demands of the House committee, yet no formal response has been issued. There has been more spending on netweork TV, cable and radio marketing for BP. The money is cash that could be spent helping with the cleanup instead. It is a little bit much of a “top kill” for BP to spend $ 1 million a week although it is good to do some marketing. : “What I don’t want to hear is, when they’re spending that kind of money on their shareholders and on TV advertising, that they’re nickel-and-diming fishermen or small businesses here in the Gulf who are having a hard time.”
Gulf Coast region ending up with one of the most advertising
Media Monitor indicates that BP’s marketing reached the greatest level of saturation within the Gulf Coast region where cities were directly suffering from the oil spill. Miami and Fort Myers were two of the five cities in Florida that came within the top 10 places BP wanted to advertise the cleanup of the oil spill. You will find some congress members that think it is fine for BP to market. One of these is Rep. Kathy Castor. However, the marketing should help steer tourism to Florida and the Gulf states, rather than focus on burnishing BP’s corporate image as a primary goal.
Controlling where info is flowing to
BP’s response to critics has been to reiterate that the purpose of its marketing is to assure Americans the business plans to meet its commitments. It is assumed that those commitments are to service claims and keep up with the cleaning effort. However, any corporation the size of BP reached the peak of the mountain by keeping an eye on the bottom line. How a brand is perceived is vitally significant to that line, so don’t expect BP to stop spending millions on self-serving advertisements unless Congress manages to shoehorn the disgraced giant into a confining set of orthopedic shoes with economically correct arches.
Further reading
Telegraph
telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7969586/BP-to-admit-1m-a-week-advertising-spree.html
BP’s ad campaign – an academic perspective
youtube.com/watch?v=t1lM2gtg1gk
