Demonstrators from the group Vuvuzelas for BP blow their horns during a protest across the street from the BP headquarters in central London on Tuesday, July 13, 2010
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Hiding behind green: The branding company Landor redesigned BP's logo in 2000, creating a green-and-yellow sunflower whose purpose, says Landor on its website, was to cast BP as "an environmental leader [with] a goal of moving beyond the petroleum sector." Oops. The fact that BP has for years presented itself as an environmentally friendly company "has made the oil spill even worse," says Kumar. "You talk green, green, green, but you are still a big oil company," he says. "It is almost as if they wished they were in a different business." The chasm between image and reality makes people question BP's sincerity, he adds. Strike three on commitment.
Blaming others: During a televised congressional hearing on June 17, Hayward said he was not to blame for the safety failings of the Deepwater Horizon since, as chief executive, "I was not part of the decision-making process." He won over few lawmakers on Capitol Hill that day. Republican Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia accused him of "copping out," while Democratic Representative Henry Waxman of California told him he was "kicking the can down the road." What Hayward should have done, says Kumar, was "to right away admit and assume responsibility," which would have shown the contrition Kumar thinks is vital to restoring BP's image.
Hayward's failure to make friends among U.S. politicians could present new problems for BP on an entirely different front — Libya. BP admitted last week that while negotiating a $900 million energy deal with Libya, its executives had expressed their concerns to British officials about Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, whose imprisonment in a Scottish jail threatened to complicate the deal.
The Scottish government freed al-Megrahi last August on compassionate grounds after he had spent eight years in jail for his role in blowing up a Pan Am jet, killing 270 people. At the time, doctors had given al-Megrahi, who suffered from prostate cancer, no more than three months to live — nearly a year later, he is still alive, living in a sprawling new house in a Tripoli suburb. With BP's image now in tatters, the company's role in the affair has surfaced as a source of fresh anger. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Thursday that it would call BP officials to testify at a hearing on al-Megrahi's release on July 29.
To begin repairing BP's reputation, both Kumar and Herring suggest flooding journalists with constantly updated information about the Deepwater Horizon — a step the company has already taken by placing footage of the cleanup efforts on its site.
Once the oil spill has been contained, BP "needs a total brand overhaul," Herring says, including even a name change "in order to hit the delete button on the bad history." And both Kumar and Herring predict BP will get a new CEO once the oil spill is over — most likely someone unconnected to the current management. As for Hayward, "I don't think [he] will have a second career in p.r.," says Kumar.