There’s a commercial running on TV right now where government representatives from four states on the Gulf of Mexico claim this year has been their best year ever for tourism, and then they argue amongst themselves over who everyone wants to come visit more. (They really ought to get into a brawl over this issue, but if they don’t have enough pride in their states to fight for them, then whatever…) And then they all nag the viewer to come visit their lovely beaches. And then the spot, which I thought was sponsored by some tourism board, or by a government agency, says: “Brought to you by BP.” (!!!) (The nerve!)
Now, that’s basically BP’s way of saying: “See? It’s a good thing that we spilled a record amount of oil into the gulf and all over all of your beaches! That’s the only reason anybody even wanted to come to your crappy beaches in the first place!” That’s how it comes across to me. (BTW: They are actually beautiful beaches and great people!) And it really comes across as insulting and asinine to me just to have them tack that “brought to you by BP” ending onto the ad, almost no matter what else the ad says. It essentially says that the oil spill is the only reason anyone wanted to come to the gulf coast to begin with: it was simply pity! And the only reason anyone felt sorry enough for the Gulf Coast to waste their time visiting it is because we (BP) spilled oil all over it! So where’s our “thank you” already?
So, essentially, BP is saying that their oil spill was a good thing after all! And I’m sure they’re spending money on this ad, rather than on clean-up, or restitution, because they’re hoping to brainwash everyone into thinking the oil spill was a great windfall, and so they don’t owe any more money for the catastrophic environmental disaster that was their spill and clean-up effort. This is what’s known as “polishing a turd”. And coincidentally, a turd is the same color as a big oil spill! (And it stinks too.) But you know what I think BP ought to do with this type of advertising if they want it to help BP’s image? They ought to resist that temptation to put their corporate logo on this ad, and even worse, try to claim credit for the good stuff that’s happening in local Gulf Coast tourism (if, indeed, this is even true).
If I were their PR/advertising advisor, I’d suggest that they pay for these tourism spots, but leave their own name off of them; for only then will people maybe start to forget, perhaps a little bit, the colossal screw-up and disaster that was their spill and response. You see, what they’re doing now is akin to running someone over with your car while you’re drunk, and then congratulating yourself for how many visitors they’re getting while they’re in the hospital: “See? Before I put you in the hospital, I’ll bet you hadn’t seen your friends in a while, and you were getting lonely and depressed; but now that I ran you over, you’re popular again! (Aren’t you grateful? You ought to be!)”
If I were their PR/advertising advisor, I’d suggest that they pay for these tourism spots, but leave their own name off of them; for only then will people maybe start to forget, perhaps a little bit, the colossal screw-up and disaster that was their spill and response. You see, what they’re doing now is akin to running someone over with your car while you’re drunk, and then congratulating yourself for how many visitors they’re getting while they’re in the hospital: “See? Before I put you in the hospital, I’ll bet you hadn’t seen your friends in a while, and you were getting lonely and depressed; but now that I ran you over, you’re popular again! (Aren’t you grateful? You ought to be!)”
See how this comes across? It’s like they almost managed to make themselves smell a little bit like roses again with the content of that ad, but then they had to go and spill the stinky fertilizer all over themselves with that BP logo & splash screen claiming credit at the end. Because when they say: “Brought to you by BP”, an entirely different image comes to mind; and it's not an image of clean beaches.
Here’s an article about this ad campaign:
