Death By Facebook: The BP Story

  • 1 min read

The same website that fostered a social movement bringing Betty White to Saturday Night Live is now bringing BP to its knees, as an ongoing battle with bad publicity is exemplified through the power of Facebook. The oil spill in the Gulf is being called the worst in American history — bringing frequent association with the Exxon Valdez spill. One hindrance that is unique to the BP spill is that this is the first major oil disaster since the popularity of Facebook and other social media platforms. In a time when the sharing of information is no longer filtered through traditional media and word of mouth, BP must be seeing sites like Facebook and Twitter as a significant threat to their brand image.

Like a wild fire

Sharing the story online is what first created wide-spread awareness of the disaster. As a new sharing tool, Facebook is powerful, but typically becomes more powerful when the story is based on popular culture. Once the story changed from an exploded oil rig to a broken oil pipe spewing into the ocean, its Facebook virility value skyrocketed. Nothing spreads faster on Facebook than bad news. Soon the story went from wall to wall to wall, sparking conversations across the globe.

After news stories, it was photos and videos of the oil pouring out under water making an oil slick that can be seen from space, followed by images of oil covered animals washed up on shore. These images are what really began to spark outrage against BP on Facebook as they scrambled to find a solution to the leaking oil.Last but not least are the anti-BP pages. There are over 1,000,000 members of anti-BP pages on Facebook which means hundreds of millions of anti-BP impressions across the network.

Does good travel just as fast?

I wonder if there is any place for BP to try to use Facebook to repair their drastically damaged brand image. Perhaps it could be possible if it were done well, but for now I think they’ve got enough to worry about.

Picture of David Trahan

David Trahan

David Trahan is currently working at leading social marketing agency Mr Youth in New York, and previously held positions with the Ad Council, Goldman Sachs and others. He is a recent graduate of Pace University where he received many scholarships and awards and is now a mentor in their Alumni Mentor Program. David also serves as a member of the AD Club of New York Young Professionals Steering Committee.

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

New York’s SAFE Act now blocks algorithmic feeds and overnight notifications for any user a platform believes is under 18, and the rules Governor Hochul’s office finalized this summer could quietly reshape how blogs and digital publishers reach teen readers who discover content through social recommendations rather than search.

New York’s SAFE Act now blocks algorithmic feeds and overnight notifications for any user a platform believes is under 18, and the rules Governor Hochul’s office finalized this summer could quietly reshape how blogs and digital publishers reach teen readers who discover content through social recommendations rather than search.

The Blog Herald
People who learned to write in longhand often think differently on paper — and many quietly miss the slowness of it

People who learned to write in longhand often think differently on paper — and many quietly miss the slowness of it

The Blog Herald
Volunteers left alone in a room with nothing to do for fifteen minutes, no phone allowed, rated it as unpleasant as a mild electric shock — and a close to half of them shocked themselves anyway

Volunteers left alone in a room with nothing to do for fifteen minutes, no phone allowed, rated it as unpleasant as a mild electric shock — and a close to half of them shocked themselves anyway

The Blog Herald
New York’s new AI advertising law took effect June 9 and requires a “conspicuous” disclosure any time a synthetic AI performer appears in an ad, with fines of $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for each one after that, and while the law spares publishers who merely host the ad, any blog or brand actually producing AI-generated spokespeople for a New York audience is squarely on the hook.

New York’s new AI advertising law took effect June 9 and requires a “conspicuous” disclosure any time a synthetic AI performer appears in an ad, with fines of $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for each one after that, and while the law spares publishers who merely host the ad, any blog or brand actually producing AI-generated spokespeople for a New York audience is squarely on the hook.

The Blog Herald
People who journal every morning aren’t always trying to process something heavy — for many, it’s just the one part of the day that still belongs entirely to them<

People who journal every morning aren’t always trying to process something heavy — for many, it’s just the one part of the day that still belongs entirely to them<

The Blog Herald
There’s a certain kind of person who, somewhere in their 60s, quietly stops justifying their choices in conversation — not because they’ve stopped caring, but because explaining yourself loses its urgency when you finally like who you are

There’s a certain kind of person who, somewhere in their 60s, quietly stops justifying their choices in conversation — not because they’ve stopped caring, but because explaining yourself loses its urgency when you finally like who you are

Global English Editing
Load more
CATEGORIES
Explore