There was a time when a good crisis communication plan addressed the situation at hand in a timely transparent manner. The plan owned up to admitting and confronting the bad, showing a solid plan for rectifying the situation and giving folks confidence that the best and brightest were working to develop the best resolution.
In the BP debacle the crisis communications plan of both the oil giant and the federal government seems to be constructed around a template of protecting our image to protect our stock and assets on BP’s front and blaming the other guy and passing the buck on the federal end to protect political assets. Neither plan as it stands is giving much solace or sorely needed answers to the American public.
In this CBS report we see BP’s attempt to put “rose colored glasses” on the crisis by trying to sugar coat the issue. It seems their initial downplaying of the extent of the situation was a toe tapper geared to keep their stock prices and corporate image from literally plunging into the oceans abyss while they prayed for a miracle. They seemed to be trying to act transparent by appearing everywhere with the CEO as the front man delivering information that was based on finger crossing hope and not fact based reality. Unfortunately you can only keep those glasses on for so long. Eventually they have to come off. Now BP after weeks of overly positive assessments finds itself in the position of looking totally incompetent and untrustworthy.
Now President Obama’s latest crisis communications plan is based around “whose ass to kick.” Not how do we console and make right this terrible situation for fellow American citizens suffering through this ecological nightmare, not how do we work to provide those suffering with emergency relief funding, not how do we assist and let BP engineers work on the leak while we work to assure that a solid plan is in place for cleanup, not where should we declare a Federal Disaster Area, but whose ass should we kick.
Obviously in response to the public’s claim that the President is not in charge, passionate or mad enough about the situation the spin doctors at the White House allowed him, as their latest crisis communications plan, to get in front of an NBC camera in Michigan yesterday to act like the Sherriff had come to Dodge to clean up the town. A cheap political smoke and mirrors trick to try to gain political capital at the expense of Gulf residents looking for answers.
Listen guys. The public is not as stupid as you may think. Take a look in the mirror at yourselves.
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Also on The Fire PIO…
- Do we have Robots running the country? – December 13, 2010
- Press Releases are not dead in our neck of the woods – September 15, 2010
You make some valid points. Unfortunately, we’ll all be paying for BPs greed for years to come. But I won’t be paying for their gas if I can help it.
You might want to have the Web site editor correct the headline. The word crisis is repeated.