BP brand spills all over world headlines

BP’s (British Petroleum) Chief Executive, Tony Hayward, demonstrated extraordinary lack public relations brand astuteness over the weekend of 19-20 June when he was spotted on ‘Bob’, his £182,000 co-owned Farr 52 racing yacht.

Mr Hayward was enjoying time off at the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race held at the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England.

A spokesman was quickly summoned to defend Mr Hayward, 53, saying he was there to relax with his son.

Meanwhile, the White House described Hayward’s involvement in the race as a:

“long line of PR gaffes and mistakes”.

The Gulf of Mexico spill is currently about a fifth of the size of the 1990 Persian Gulf spill .

Recently Mr Hayward wrote on Facebook that he wanted to “get his life back”.

Responding to ‘Bob-gate’, the White House Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s Chief of Staff said:

“I think we can all conclude that Tony Hayward is not going to have a second career in PR consulting.”

A  BP spokesperson explained that the break was a first for Mr Hayward since the Deep Water Horizon rig exploded in April, costing the lives of eleven workers and causing America’s most devastating environmental disaster in history.

Life on the high seas for Hayward

On 19^th June, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said Mr Hayward had been relieved of the day-to-day control of the spill and that the company’s Managing Director, Bob Dudley, would be assuming responsibility.

However according to some conflicting reports, BP officials insisted Mr Hayward remains in charge of the operation. Hugh Wilding, of Isle of Wight Friends of the Earth, said:

“This will be seen as another public relations disaster.”

Greenpeace campaigner Charlie Kronick called the boating trip as:

“insulting… rubbing salt into the wounds” of those affected by the spill.

Thousands of barrels of oil continue to seep out into the Gulf of Mexico daily.

Steps have been put in to capturing some 25,000 barrels of leaking oil a day. However, reports suggest 35,000-60,000 barrels a day continue to spill out.

BP was recently panned over its role in the Gulf of Mexico oil crisis by one of its own business partners, the Texan company Anadarko Petroleum, the largest independent oil and gas company operating in the Gulf which owns 25% of the well. BP strongly denied any such claims.

The company has said that claim payments exceeded $100,000,000; 31,000 cheques had been issued in seven weeks since the original explosion. $104 million to residents along the Gulf Coast.

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

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Heinz, the perennial family brand favourite, has withdrawn its television commercial for mayonnaise because it believes it offends family values.
The thirty-second commercial, which was due to run over five weeks, features a man in a typical middle-class family kitchen setting preparing sandwiches for a schoolboy and girl.  The man, dressed as a chef, sounds and acts like a native New Yorker.  The children collect their sandwiches. A second man appears, in a hurry to get to work.  He is presumed to be the father of the family.  He calls  “goodbye” to the chef who in turns orders him back to give a ‘farewell’ kiss on the lips.
The commercial prompted over 200 complaints.  The Daily Mail, noted for its campaigning on behalf of ‘Middle-England’, reported that some parents were angry because they had been forced to explain same-sex relationships to their children.
Heinz suspended the campaign explaining to the press that, “We are a global, family company that listens to its consumers.”
However clearly not all the family were happy with ‘Ma’ and ‘Pa’ Heinz.
Outrage and dissent broke out among Britain’s 3.6 million gay community.  Gay rights group Stonewall called for gays to stop eating baked beans, spaghetti and other products from Heinz.
This heavy-handed decree offers the sad prospect of gay men and women being forced to covertly eat tins of beans in dark closets – away from the aghast of the general public.  Will they next be forced to swallow beans in their unprotected raw form still dripping with fresh sauce, straight from the tin?
David Muniz, commercial director at Gaydar, points out, “If Heinz had announced they were pulling the ad because it hadn’t worked creatively I could have understood it, but what they went on to say was nothing short of offensive and insensitive to the gay community”.
Meanwhile in the States, The American Family Association has urged members to register disapproval with Heinz in America.”Forward this to all your family and friends letting them know of the push for homosexual marriage by Heinz,” proclaims the Association’s website.
Members of Parliament have also joined the debate, saying that Heinz should actually reinstate the campaign.  Michael Cashman MEP for West Midlands– a former actor who, in 1987 played a man with HIV in the popular soap, Eastenders, described the commercial as,” a clever and innovative” reflection on modern life.
Food producers, the general public, politicians and pressure groups await to hear the Advertising Standards Association’s ruling on whether or not the commercial was indeed offensive.  (It wasn’t shown during children’s programming as regulations don’t allow foods with high fats, salt or sugar content to be broadcast at that time).
When it comes to mainstream UK broadcasting of gay-themed commercials, Heinz is certainly not the first to provoke debate.  Brands like FCUK and Benetton have gone much further. A Dolce & Gabbana commercial screened during the X Factor in 2006 received 89 complaints.  In 2006 a computer game, Canis Canem Edit, originally called, ‘Bully’, was given a 15 certificate because of a kiss between teenage boys.
From a brand forensics point of view it’s  confusing to suggest that the Heinz commercial reflects the true taste of New York. Whilst some Delis in New York may indeed give you a free pucker on the lips with every baloney sandwich, most only offer extra mustard.
You simply don’t automatically think, ‘New York equals a gay kiss’. That said, brands such as Heinz have to reflect the reality of the society occupied by its customers.
It is not up to Heinz or any other brand to set moral agendas. However they need to demonstrate a degree of ethics that address all people irrespective of their sexual preferences. All brands have to be mindful of audiences watching commercials and their sensibilities.
Heinz is a family brand and there is always a risk of upsetting members of that family (i.e. Heinz’s customers) even if their intention was supposed to be an innocent joke.
Perhaps the brand is saying, “this is today’s family values – we’re not suggesting such values are right or wrong we’re just reflecting society.”

However much negative publicity this suspension generates, history tends to show that brands like Heinz are more than capable of taking the flak squarely on the chin (or this case on the lips).

Jonathan Gabay
www.brandforensics.co.uk

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12 years ago I was invited by leading international training organisations like CIM and others to teach copywriting and other creative marketing subjects to their delegates.

I assumed that I would mainly be addressing creative teams at agencies. Having taught literally thousands of people, I can honestly say that 99% of delegates come from in-company, looking to produce advertising for themselves. In the early days many wanted to the training so that they could swap their ‘suits’ for glamorous creative jeans worn on the other side of the client-agency divide. Now they face increasing demands from management to do everything for themselves.

More and more big brands initially use agencies to kick-off major campaigns and deal with global unification of a message. Once achieved, the companies often take up much of the creative reigns, producing anything from advertising to leaflets, brochures and integrated emarketing campaigns.

Deadlines are shorter than ever and demands from departments throughout a company – including overseas offices – are harsh. In 2008 if a brand manager gets stuck they either employ freelance independent copywriters and designers to look at a project, (the same used by some agencies) or invest in more training for their staff to learn how to do it better for themselves next time. (Curiously, many still leave the world of TV production to the agencies – but not necessarily corporate video production).

By going in-house, companies often feel they have greater control of media buying, brand direction and even nitty-gritty issues like updating banner ads – without being stung with painful fees by their agencies.

Of all the big brands adopting this approach, the majority tend to be in areas such financial services, which, in addition to having to be creatively distinctive, must address compliancy issues that frankly go over the heads of too many Guardian reading creative folk at agencies.

Some of the older infrastructure creative agencies worrying about this trend away from consulting hallowed creative gurus in white-walled offices and snooker table ‘creative lounges’ will argue that clients are too close a subject to offer any independent creative views and don’t have the creative clout and insights to professional see a project through to its justifiable conclusion.

In the few odd instances when I have had agencies coming to learn about creative subjects like copywriting, the typical response I get is: ‘ Terrific course, but I can’t run it in-house because my agency is too proud to ask anyone to tell them how to be more creative or learn new techniques- that’s what we charge people to come to us!”

This is very poor indictment on agencies. I believe that if they want to flourish and prosper they need to remain several steps ahead of the people whom they are servicing.

Today companies are facing tougher demands on budgets and tighter methods of measuring effective campaigns. Agencies are sometimes seen as adding too many links in a chain – especially when their creative work has to be re-written in house. Agencies must become more flexible, perhaps through training. If not they may find increasing numbers of their own staff who want to be at the glamorous end of campaign production will be searching the back pages of Marketing Week to get jobs on the other side of the fence.

Jonathan Gabay

www.brandforensics.co.uk

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