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Public Relations Crisis Management | Don't Spread the Blame
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When responding to a potential crisis that involves your company, it is never ideal to wag your finger around, putting the blame on someone else; yet some companies continue to do this. The inspiration for this post comes from the recent oil spill (the largest in US history). Can you guess what BP is doing? They're helping to create a great case study PR courses can use for decades to come! How are they doing that? They're blaming the oil drillers they hired, not themselves. I'm afraid that was the wrong move.


What should have happened? Well, from a (or my) PR stance, the exact opposite.

1. The first thing any PR professional would and should advise a company to do in light of a crisis such as this (which will devastate agricultural, oceanic, and wildlife systems, killing millions of marine and land animals in the process) is to accept responsibility. Regardless of who was at fault for your oil spilling, you are the overseeing company who is responsible for the oil when profits are being made; that makes you responsible when a crisis occurs, as well.
2. The next thing that good PR pro would advise is to apologize. Putting aside the actual cause for the crisis, apologize because you were involved. Guess who the public is going to remember when they talk about this spill in 20 years, like the Exxon spill, who's repercussions are still being felt? BP's. The name of the drillers whose machinery failed will not be remembered. The media, bloggers, and the public are already responding and nothing is being said that references the drillers; BP's name is the only one being used.
   
3. Be genuine about your apology as well, because, believe or not, regardless of the general public's lack of understanding of what's actually going on (because they are ill-informed), they can tell if you're being sincere or not.
4. The most important step: act, now. There are regulations to be dealt with and the US government also has to go to through a few hoops before they can release the Kraken Navy and Coast Guard, but that doesn't mean that BP had to wait. Regardless of the crisis at hand, regardless of what you plan to do in the coming days, do something about it now.
   

BP is doing a few things right, despite the blaringly obvious mistakes that they made in the beginning. They are saying they will "throw everything they have at this". It appears military are also helping with the clean up and ships are being deployed to collect the oil. It may be too late for BP to be seen in a good light, though, since the most crucial time to do the right thing is in those first few days.

What's your take? Politics aside, as there are some pretty ridiculous things floating around about our own government's participation, how should BP have acted to manage this crisis?