A second article, posted by Adweek.com on January 14th, discusses in great detail the advertising and public relations campaign launched by the granddaddy of all corporate appeasers—a modern Neville Chamberlain from the UK—British Petroleum (BP). The final paragraph in the article reads: “Regardless of whether industry observers think BP is truly ‘green,’ the company and its rebranding campaign have managed to convince the public that it is more eco-friendly than its competitors.”
According to Adweek Magazine, since 2005 BP has spent over $100 million a year to convince U.S. consumers that it is greener than ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and Texaco. The article provides no solid evidence that consumers are rewarding BP at the pumps for what may be the greatest hoodwink in the annals of advertising. To be sure, sales have risen thanks to $100/barrel oil but every petroleum company has benefited from skyrocketing crude.
The Adweek article also fails to address how BP could justify spending all that money on a campaign to puff up its image when the company’s poor safety and maintenance practices apparently resulted in a fatal explosion at its refinery in Texas, and the forced shut-down of a highly corroded BP pipeline in Alaska. These two events contributed to the expedited resignation of BP CEO John Browne, the person who jumped in bed with Greenpeace and drove the company beyond petroleum and toward corporate socialism. Poor John Browne; he found out that it’s not easy being Green!
I believe the folks at Business Week and Adweek have actually done a great service for those of us who have been arguing that the corporate social responsibility movement is a fraud. Business Week provides hope that future corporate executives aren’t buying the socialist hooey. Adweek has made it clear that CSR is not about corporate ethics and values—it’s about manipulating public opinion. Perhaps in 2008, business leaders and investors will start to seriously question whether the alleged benefits of corporate socialism and appeasement are worth the real costs.