Marketing Monday: Oil Spills, Google, and You

The Consumerist reports that BP isn't too fond of people using search engines to check up on its Gulf of Mexico misadventures. The company has bought up some Google and Yahoo phrases in order to scuttle efforts to find news reports using such words.

Here's what they learned from a detailed piece from ABC News:

A simple Google search of "oil spill" turns up several thousand news results, but the first link, highlighted at the very top of the page, is from BP. "Learn more about how BP is helping," the link's tagline reads.

A spokesman for the company confirmed to ABC News that it had, in fact, bought these search terms to make information on the spill more accessible to the public.

I suppose I might have done the same thing if I was in BP's situation. On the other hand, I can't imagine that I'd ever be involved in anything like BP's situation. I'm proud of the ethical approach to safety that has been part of my work in product marketing from the very beginning.