The British Petroleum oil spill that took place in 2010 was a tremendous tragedy. Eleven lives were lost, several injured, and an environment was temporarily ruined. This tragedy cost BP billions of dollars in clean up fees, legal fees and settlements, and money for future research.
With the billions of dollars lost and a hurt public image, BP had to react swiftly and accurately. BP has been advocating and continuing to communicate the complete restoration of the Gulf Shore for five years now. I believe that with the amount of money and trust lost, BP should continue to promote the restoration of the Gulf Shore.
Like other major problems, people begin to show less interest about these situations as time goes on. But, I believe that if BP stopped any time soon, they would be bashed in the media for not caring about the environment.
So to answer the question, yes, I do feel as if BP is now capitalizing on its communication efforts for the Shore’s restoration, but if they didn’t continue to do so, the world wouldn’t like it! We love to care about things temporarily, and it begins to become less important to us. We are allowed to do that, major oil companies on the other hand, are not. They have to continue to show that they care, even though the amount of eyes watching them is less than what they had 5 years ago.
I also believe that BP now has the right to capitalize on this situation now. It’s the smart thing to do in my eyes. With the money that they’ve lost, why not continue to keep everyone happy, while pocketing some of the revenue as well?
As we spoke on corporate responsibility last week, I feel that every company is responsible for supporting something, but I also believe that while they support they are making money on it as well.
Stanzza Patterson 