Fifty-seven days.Louisiana and the Gulf Coast are in the news once again in post-disaster stages. Since we are only two weeks into hurricane season, the Gulf states aren’t in the national spotlight because we’re underwater — it’s because we may soon be under oil.
It’s been 57 days since oil began splurging out into the Gulf of Mexico and only recently onto the shores of the southern Gulf states.While I’m sure most of you reading this column are aware of this disaster and most likely have formulated your own opinions about BP, offshore drilling, President Obama and oil companies in general, I’m not here today to sway your opinions about any of that.However, BP is putting forth efforts to calm people’s nerves and tell its side of the story through means other than crying over radio ads and wishing to be left alone.Last week it was announced BP would be buying search terms on popular Internet search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, to help give web surfers information on the oil spill, what is being done to plug up the leak, etc.”We have bought search terms on search engines like Google to make it easier for people to find out more about our efforts in the Gulf,” BP spokesman Toby Odone told ABC News.If you go into Google and search words such as “oil spill” or “BP,” the top link to show up is from BP’s official website with the caption “Info about the Gulf of Mexico Spill Learn More about How BP is Helping.”It seems like this is more along the lines of “what BP wants to share with the general public and help form biases by becoming the top search term on popular search engines” than “How BP is Helping.””Scott Slatin, an analyst who runs search engine marketing company Rivington in New York, estimates the company is paying upwards of $10,000 per day to maintain the various search terms,” ABC News reports.More than $10,000 per day?I’m not sure how much money it costs to plug up a giant drain gushing oil thousands of feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, but I’m pretty sure $10,000 per day could go toward figuring that out and not at attempting to maintain their already pretty crappy public image.Right now, BP should be spending every dollar, resource and bit of energy on coming up with a solution to this gushing pipe.Once it figures out how to solve one task, then it should start tackling another.Speaking of corporations more worried about spending countless dollars on things other than fixing the main problem — another company I love to hate, AT&T.
AT&T has been known to be lacking when it comes to their wireless network and 3G coverage. But instead of spending money on fixing its crappy network, they blow it all on a tool like Luke Wilson as a spokesman, or starting pointless lawsuits against everyone.None of that fixes the problem — AT&T has an inferior cellular network.The same goes for BP. It may be in the company’s interest to look good in the public eye, but that still doesn’t fix the problem affecting millions of lives.While I do admire BP for wanting to make the general public aware of what it’s doing to help end this crisis, it should do so in ways that don’t waste so much money.
Fix the main problem first — then play clean-up later.–Contact Adam Arinder at [email protected]