PR Week today reports that beleaguered BP is spending millions of dollars to minimise the PR damage caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which has been named the worst oil spill in US history.

With no end in sight to the ongoing saga, BP chief executive Tony Hayward has said: ‘I think this is clearly a major reputational issue for BP.’

As £12billion was wiped off the value of its shares earlier today, it seems that BP’s reputation – and its future - is at risk every bit as much as the Gulf ecosystem.

The results mean the company’s stock has fallen £42billion – more than a third of its value – since the fatal oilrig explosion six weeks ago.

Some analysts are predicting that BP may not survive.

Greenpeace, who are masters of effective PR, summed up the feelings of many around the world when they hung a large flag with their own design on BP’s West London HQ, rebranding the company “British Polluters.”

Tags: Bad PR, BP, Effective Uses of Public Relations, Ethical Reputation, Greenpeace, Oil Spill, PR, PR Disaster, PR Week, Public Relations, Reputation

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 1:24pm and is filed under PR Comment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.