BP has not been successful when it comes to stopping up the oil leak in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.  As the Deepwater Horizon oil spill gets worse and worse, BP gets more and more aggressive in their public relations efforts in an attempt to ward off the damage every oil-soaked bird does to their reputation.  Their latest effort is buying up all the Google ad space for oil spill-related terms; BP now owns the ad space for phrases like oil spill, volunteer, claims, and Gulf spill.

In case you’re wondering why this is news, this is an experiment to see if BP ads will pop up over the top of this particular PopFi post.  I use Google AdSense to fill up space on this website (I’d much rather sell actual ads, but the market is thin; call me BP!), and as such I get a lot of keyword buyer ads.  I’m wondering if BP will be the latest company to scoop up ad space when their name is mentioned.

I guess we’ll find out how well BP is controlling their image, won’t we?  However, if they wanted to keep their franchisee gas stations happy, they’d either cap the spill for good or cut gas prices to the bone.  I mean, they’re wasting oil on a daily basis, may as well give gas away below market value, too!

Tags: BP, British Petroleum, oil spill, Gulf of Mexico, Deepwater Oil Rig spill, advertising, ads, weird ads, unusual public relations moves, Google AdWords, BP buys up Google ads related to oil spill

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