Washington is necessarily harsh it is its own responsibility

Rarely icon of the City has seen its image-rolled in so little time. For BP, it is not only $ 100 billion in market capitalization that are left in smoke from the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon platform, April 20, off the coast of Louisiana. It is also the capital image of one of the most respected oil firms in the world who vanished on an error of maintenance of the "obturator block" from the Macondo well, to the origin of the disaster. With the fire crossed American media, Congress and even the White House, despite an armada of consultants services (Ogilvy PR Worldwide, The Brunswick Group and the Council in crisis communication Purple Strategies...), BP has constantly taken in default.

"A long series of communication blunders and errors", summarized the Director of the cabinet of Barack Obama, Rahm Emmanuel, on 20 June. Washington is necessarily harsh: it is its own responsibility. The British group may pay a heavy price for its lack of transparency, "autistic" management of the crisis and the image of amateurism projected by its CEO, Tony Hayward, finally "statement", on 18 June, the daily management of the spill. The scale of the blunders of BP, Toyota or Goldman Sachs clumsiness are relegated to the level of minor faults.

Loss of control

Ultimate blunder of the CEO Its participation, the weekend of June 20, a prestigious regatta sponsored by JPMorgan Asset Management around the Isle of Wight, on his sailboat "Bob", a value of 300,000 euros. The entourage of the President and CEO has been may specify that it was his first "off" day since the beginning of the crisis, Tony Hayward pay the ransom of his small unfortunate phrase: "I want my life back" ("I want my life to front"), made a few weeks after the explosion of the platform which claimed the lives of 11 people. Despite his public apology, without sufficient education, the credibility of the CEO has continued to deteriorate since a month.

Of course, the original error was to have seriously underestimated the level of leakage (1,000 barrels per day against 60,000 today). "Despite a rather strong presence at the beginning, BP has lost control of the situation in the middle of May." "Blunders to are chained one after the other", said Claude Grunitzky, President of the True agency New York advertising. It is at this point, Tony Hayward says the "guardian" of May 14: "Gulf of the Mexico is a vast ocean." The volume of oil and dispersant that we injected is tiny compared to the total volume of water. "Boom! A month later, the Government experts will meet for the fifth time, estimates of the leak to a range of 35,000 to 60,000 barrels per day.

Barrage of Obama

To design its campaign of television apology and promise of relief ("We will make it right"), BP has bypassed its traditional agency Ogilvy to Purple Strategies, an agency of lobbying in Washington include association of PhRMA pharmaceutical companies among its clients. But the oil group has faced public criticism of the US President, Barack Obama, on the appropriateness of a television campaign of 50 million dollars in turmoil. "The CEO of BP did not stand up to Barack Obama who took the opportunity to designate a scapegoat", said Claude Grunitzky, in reference to the famous "I know whose ass to kick" ("I know what behind kicking") released by the President. Height of misfortune for BP: 2 November mid-term elections a few months, Barack Obama must do everything to avoid a "remake" of Katrina.

"last but not least", the British Group had to justify, in early June, the recruitment of Anne Womack Kolton, a former collaborator of Dick Cheney - regarded as one of the main instigators of the collusion between the oil lobby and the organs of control-, to the position of head of communication of BP in the United States. "It is a choice of communication and not an appointment policy;" "it shall be in no way responsible for the relations of BP with the Congress," nuance Andrew Gowers, former Director of the "Financial Times" pilot relations with BP media since the fall of 2009. But the choice of a close to Dick Cheney is seen as a provocation by some Democrats elected.

With hindsight, the Green slogan "beyond petroleum" launched by the former CEO of BP, lord John Browne, has a painful boomerang effect. Despite his "mea culpa" late and its effective efforts to seal the leak, BP has constantly given the image of a group overtaken by events.