The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico made headlines on April 20th, 2010 as the largest offshore spill in US history. Understandably this has had a disastrous effect on BP’s brand image, which is now one of environmental irresponsibility. Social media played a key part in further tarnishing BP, when a parody Twitter account @BPGlobalPR began tweeting amusing tweets designed to make BP look like a company that doesn’t take the Gulf disaster seriously or care about those affected.

@BPGlobalPR's Twitter Account

@BPGlobalPR’s ultimate aim is to raise awareness and sell T-shirts featuring the slogan ‘BP Cares’, donating all proceeds to www.healthygulf.org, a charity drive to help clean up the oil spill. However, the use of humour for such a serious subject has been controversial, with some of its followers failing to recognise it as a parody. The site caused such anger among the public that some followers even left death threats.

BP, already under fierce public criticism for the oil spill, will see the Twitter hack as a disaster for their brand as, essentially, they are letting someone from outside the company represent them.

@BPGlobalPR’s popularity has soared and now has 10 times more followers then BP’s real Twitter account. However, BP itself has also benefited from the publicity generated through this site and has seen the biggest sustained rise in followers after the fake account launched.

Increase Of Twitter Followers

But what should BP do? Embrace the account or demand a ban?

Initial thoughts would be that it could be best to ban @BPGlobalPR. But would a ban really make people see BP in a new light or would it make them look like a company who can’t take a joke? If they were to ban @BPGlobalPR,  the public and media could well take the view that they’d be ruining the parody site’s charity efforts, cue further backlash.

Could social media help save BP’s brand image?

The public are understandably frustrated about the situation and the fake account gives them a platform to express and work out their frustrations away from the authentic BP site. BP could take advantage of this and make what was initially a negative attack work for them. If BP collaborated with @BPGlobalPR they could turn www.healthygulf.org into a national charity campaign, which could help to turn their PR image around. They could also take advantage of its vast numbers of followers and use it as a platform to get their real messages across to a larger audience then their own site would allow.

This is not the only way that social media has been used to vent anger against BP. “Black Oil Firefox Plug-in” is a Firefox application that has been created byJess3, the Washington D.C.-based web design, branding and data visualization agency and is designed to black out any mention of BP or the oil spill on Firefox browsers.

Social media gives the public a platform to protest, allowing them to express their views and vent anger in ways which traditional media would not allow. These campaigns certainly have an impact on the public but whether they will make a difference or have a big enough impact to really impact BP operations remains to be seen.

About The Author

Gemma Uthayakumar is an Intern for Social Media Library. She has a Masters in Research Methods and Statistics from City University.