Will This Man Save BP's Reputation?

July 1, 2010<br/> NEW YORK -- A familiar concept in science fiction books and films is the idea of aliens disguising themselves as human beings to make the people of earth feel comfortable until it is too late and they have gained the upper hand.

BP's use of Darryl Willis in its TV commercials got me thinking about the many science fiction novels I read as a teenager. His calm, easygoing, reassuring manner on TV strikes just the chord BP needs as oil flows unchecked 5,000 feet below the Gulf of Mexico.

As an adman, my first reaction is that it is simply brilliant. Darryl Willis has the kind of stage presence that generally only comes from central casting.

He is confident, but not cocky. He conveys a certain authority and his credentials carry weight not just because he is a BP executive, which he is, but because he also comes off as someone with skin in the game…a concerned resident.

And -- in a juxtaposition that has to have been a reward for years of living right or conceived during a frantic, desperate meeting between BP's top execs and its PR and marketing consultants -- Darryl Willis is everything BP is not at a time when it so desperately needs to be: American and local.

Oh, and one more thing: he is African American. African Americans are the largest minority population in the states most affected by the spill -- Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and parts of Florida. In fact, African Americans are actually the majority population in many of the counties closest to the spill site.

Flashback to 2003: Having suffered the almost unthinkable, a devastating terrorist attack on American soil on September 11, 2001, the U.S. government is trying to make the case for war. Our Secretary of State is Colin Powell. He has a powerful, reassuring presence. He is a bona fide (Purple Heart) war hero and is a credible and influential voice to the American people and to the world. It was Colin Powell who addressed the United Nations and told us that Saddam Hussein's Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was developing nuclear capability.

We are still debating whether he was misinformed or deliberately misled the General Assembly. It can be argued that we were swayed by the spokesman.

The advertising and public relations battle BP is engaged in is critical to the company's survival. It must at all times frame the situation and favorably package it for public consumption. BP has to position itself as in control and on the job with assistance for all who need it and a plan and a commitment to put everything back into place.