TY - JOUR
T1 - #A little bird told me : birdcaging the message during the BP disaster
AU - Howell, Gwyneth V. J.
AU - Miller, Rohan
AU - Rushbrook-House, Georgina
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - The purpose of crisis planning is to prepare for the inevitable. This paper examines BP’s crisis response following the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and the subsequent environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This event severely damaged BP’s corporate standing, and the company’s response and management of the crisis and cleanup exacerbated the damage to BP’s reputation. The company’s crisis communication strategies failed amid an onslaught of online and social media commentary from traditionally passive stakeholders and activists. The resultant damage to the company’s reputation saw $95B wiped off the company’s equity value and the CEO forced to resign. It is shown that crisis planning needs to be continually reviewed to take account of the evolving nature of social media during a crisis; in this instance, the use of Twitter proved particularly damaging to BP. Rolling crisis plans that encompass all media are required to provide the conclusive and swift action necessary to minimise the impact of a crisis.
AB - The purpose of crisis planning is to prepare for the inevitable. This paper examines BP’s crisis response following the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and the subsequent environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This event severely damaged BP’s corporate standing, and the company’s response and management of the crisis and cleanup exacerbated the damage to BP’s reputation. The company’s crisis communication strategies failed amid an onslaught of online and social media commentary from traditionally passive stakeholders and activists. The resultant damage to the company’s reputation saw $95B wiped off the company’s equity value and the CEO forced to resign. It is shown that crisis planning needs to be continually reviewed to take account of the evolving nature of social media during a crisis; in this instance, the use of Twitter proved particularly damaging to BP. Rolling crisis plans that encompass all media are required to provide the conclusive and swift action necessary to minimise the impact of a crisis.
UR - http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/540920
U2 - 10.1080/21639159.2014.881111
DO - 10.1080/21639159.2014.881111
M3 - Article
SN - 2163-9159
VL - 24
SP - 113
EP - 128
JO - Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
JF - Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
IS - 2
ER -