The Good, The Bad & The Ugly PR Behind the BP Oil Spill

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest offshore oil spill in US history. BP have finally managed to put a temporary cap on the well which has spewed out between 94 million and 184 million gallons of oil into the sea.  The flow of oil is now stopped for the first time in 87 days. During that time, BP has been giving us all a lesson in how to make a bad situation worse through bad PR.

A review of what BP are doing on- and off-line to deal with the crisis… Continue reading »

Daily Star in Hot Water over Raoul Moat Video Game Story

So it’s Summer, it’s silly season and as such the pace of life in the nation’s newsrooms is that bit slower. However in the UK, the Daily Star’s newsroom have reportedly taken this relaxed vibe to the next level and put their heads down on their desks and allegedly ‘dreamed up’ a story.

Yesterday the tabloid posted a story by Jerry Lawton with the sensational headline: “Raoul Moat: Video Game, Film and Book Plans Cause Fury“.

The piece read: “Fury erupted last night over plans for a Raoul Moat book, movie and game… before the man he killed has even been laid to rest.”

The story was accompanied by a doctored image of the well known ‘Grand Theft Auto’ videogame – except in this case it was “the cover of Grand Theft Auto Rothbury”, the village traumatized by the killer. The Star attribute the image to “gaming websites”.

The story was altogether light on specifics. Which gaming websites started all this? No-one knows. One gaming site addressed the Star’s claims and wrote: “We read a lot of games websites. We have not seen these websites.”

The journalist also claimed that “film companies are lining up bids for the rights” to a movie. Again no details were given.

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