PR Analysis of British Petroleum

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, grade: 73, University of Hertfordshire (Business School), course: MA Marketing, language: English, abstract: British Petroleum is an international energy provider with a large degree of focus on both upstream and downstream oil assets and operations as well as continued diversification into alternative energy sources. It has a market capitalization of GBP117,929 million as at the close of business 29th March 2010. The ‘Beyond Petroleum’ campaign stemmed from late nineties and early noughties merger (Amoco) and acquisition (the Atlantic Richfield Corporation and Burmah Castrol) activity. BP approached Ogilvy PR with a brief to Position BP as a new type of global energy company that confronts such difficult issues as the conflict between energy and environmental needs and takes actions beyond what is expected of an oil company. (Ogilvy, 2010 & Leopard, 2010) This ‘green-washing’ campaign went on to win two PRWeek Campaign of the Year awards in 2001, however in the same breath it did draw public criticisms from environmentally focused organizations citing a cynicism within BP. ‘Beyond Petroleum’ was a campaign that had twofold objectives looking to both demonstrate that BP were an industry leader with a unique position as a green and socially conscious oil and gas company as well as uniting several recently acquired companies as well as existing employees under one unified banner.