Beyond Petroleum

I’m angry at BP.

This is a branding blog, so I won’t go into how the company has destroyed marine life in the Gulf of Mexico, damaged fragile habitats up and down the coast, and further polluted the oceans with overuse of toxic dispersants. I also won’t address how they were woefully unprepared for this sort of disaster, have bungled attempts to stop the leak (worthy of Saturday Night Live parody), and are now saying the oil may flow into the Gulf well into August. I won’t go into how they blamed others, misled the public to believe the leak was much smaller than it was (BP initially stated the leak was 1,000 barrels per day but video footage has demonstrated it may be 100 times higher than this estimate), or their lame PR efforts since the disaster.

What I’m angry about is the use of branding at BP to greenwash the company.

Branding is a tool that can be used to tell a company’s story. It can be a tool for good (e.g., helping non-profits like the Wilderness Society tell their story) or evil, as in the case of BP. McCann Erickson has had a company mantra that I have always admired for its insight and simplicity: Truth Well Told. To me this means that marketing and branding is about discovering the true essence of a brand or a company culture and then telling the story of this brand or company in a compelling, creative way.

BP didn’t tell the truth.

When they rebranded in 2001, they were interested in disassociating their brand from the negative images of Exxon Valdez and big oil. Their new tagline, “Beyond Petroleum,” suggested a company aggressively researching and investing in wind, hydrogen, solar and biofuels. While they spent $200 million on advertising and PR to launch “Beyond Petroleum,” the truth is that in 2009 only 2.1% of their revenues came from alternative energy sources. The truth is they invested just 0.6% of their revenues in R&D for alternative energy sources last year and recently closed their alternative energy headquarters in London. The truth is they fought legislation in Congress that would have lessened our dependence on oil, spending $16 million in 2009 on lobbying efforts.

The cost of not telling the truth to the BP brand may be irreparable. Here are alternate taglines the blogosphere has started associating BP:

Beyond Pompous
Beyond Disastrous
Back to Petroleum
Bungling the Planet
Beyond Propaganda
Barely People
Beyond Belief
Black Planet
We’re Bringing Oil to America’s Shores
(Add yours below!)

If you are interested in letting BP know how you feel about what they have done, boycott the brand. The Facebook page, Boycott BP already has 100,000 friends and can be joined at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-BP/119101198107726?ref=ts