BP’s Latest PR Tactic: Buying Gulf Oil Disaster-Related Links on Google
Search any of these phrases on Google: oil spill, BP, or Deepwater Horizon. Take a look at the sponsored link on top of the page. It doesn’t direct you towards, say, an oil disaster recovery group or news about the spill’s impact on the Louisiana economy.
In each case, the sponsored link goes to BP’s Gulf of Mexico response page–essentially, BP’s propaganda page about the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
BP doesn’t deny the PR tactic. In an interview with The Fiscal Times, a BP spokesperson admitted that the company has snapped up sponsored links.
See BP’s Latest PR Tactic: Buying Gulf Oil Disaster-Related Links on Google, by Ariel Schwartz for Fast Company.
Stay tuned to the Business Survival(tm) Blog for the ultimate guide to Crisis Communications, by the guru himself – Jim Lukaszewski, coming Fall, 2010!
Tags: BP, crisis communication, crisis management
