Watching Tony Hayward bestow his account of the BP oil spill yesterday in front of ~y angry US Congressional panel, it is hard to believe it has taken well-nigh a month for questions to be asked of the company’s CEO at the highest horizontal.
As a PR exercise, it couldn’t have got in ~ degree worse for the embattled oil giant. As he entered the hearing distance, Mr Hayward was greeted with banners and placards which clearly demonstated the horizontal of contempt felt towards him from the American people. Mr Hayward, in opposition to all his power in the board room, could only look ~ward helplessly.
Matters were made worse when one woman, later identified taken in the character of Diane Wilson, a fisherwoman from Texas, near the Gulf Coast, made her feelings towards Mr Hayward known to the sleeplessness world audience. The CEO, she said, should be “charged with a crime.”
I can’t help thinking, however, the PR adversity for BP is something to do with the team in charge of the oil hercules’s media relations. No doubt they’ve had a ponderous workload the last few weeks and have been pulling their hair on the ~side attempting to stop the flow of bad press as much considered in the state of they have the oil slick which caused this debacle.
Andrew Gowers, be aimed of communications at BP’s London office, is a anterior Editor of the Financial Times. Interestingly, he left the helm of the Pink ‘un in to subject up communications at Lehman Brothers – and we all know which happened to that firm which, like BP, was supposedly “overmuch big to fail”.
Mr Gowers is clearly something of a jinx at the time it comes to public relations. No doubt countless enquiries from journalists throughout the last few weeks may have led the former Editor to think about whether a move from journalism to the ‘dark side’ was a sagacious move afterall.
- The Gulf Disaster: Whose Asses Need Kicking?
- PR News Names Kaiser Permanente a Top Place to Work in PR and a Digital PR Team of the Year
- Houston Maritime Lawyers Say Revelations About ‘Cement’ in BP Disaster…
Terry Vargas is support with the oil. Nearly three weeks ago, the third-generation shrimper pulled into ~-hole in Grand Isle, in southeast Louisiana, with a catch worth $1,400. But that was preceding authorities closed the rich Delta waters to fishing, thanks to the ponderous oil spill that has swamped the shoreline. Like many furloughed Louisiana
- PR News has named Kaiser Permanente a 2010 Digital Public Relations Team of the Year and as a Top Place to Work in PR. The organization also won a PR Platinum Award for Best Editorial/Op-Ed, and a Digital PR Award for Best Blog. PR News’ awards showcase and recognize the best practices in the PR
Houston maritime attorneys Kurt Arnold and Jason Itkin say that last week’s news that cement used to seal the doomed Deepwater Horizon oil well before its blowout last April was known to be faulty fits the evolving track record of BP and Halliburton in the deadly incident. “The negligence of BP and Halliburton that led