![]() ![]() ![]() “BP admitted to spending three times as much on promotional advertising after the disaster than the year before,” Townsend said, alluding to a portion of the $71 billion the company has spent over the last decade to repair its reputation. The disaster resulted in the death of 11 workers and 4 million barrels of oil polluting the Gulf of Mexico, and the PR campaign that followed is considered to be among the most notorious cases of corporate greenwashing. For instance, BP’s PR agencies, including Ogilvy and Purple Strategies, concocted a campaign to detract attention from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig disaster. Townsend outlined how her sector has been culpable in helping to reframe terrible events in a positive light. “These problem-solvers and storytellers act as the grease in the wheel of all other businesses on earth,” she said. Speaking at the recent TED Countdown conference in Edinburgh, she explained that while the trillion-dollar sector‘s carbon footprint may be negligible, its impact is immeasurable. She has been on a crusade to convince the “X industry,” as she calls it, to own up to its part of the problem. Will other consultancies and creative firms face similar pressure? Solitaire Townsend, co-founder of the communications agency Futerra, certainly hopes so. ![]()
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