Aug 1, 2010
Amoco is Dead, Long Live Amoco
By Timothy R. Butler | Posted at 19:34:56
Reuters reports:
Some BP gas station owners in the United States want to drop the BP name and return to the Amoco brand to recover business hit by public anger over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.
I predicted this some time ago, but failed to post it online. Too bad. I do expect BP will pull a Worldcom and rebrand with their less tarnished, previously subsumed and retired brand sometime in the next year or two. I wouldn't expect it in the next couple of months, though. Doing it too soon would risk dragging the Amoco name into the mud, or in this case, oil.
I don't think changing their name will change their fate. I think since 9/11 a whole lot more younger people are being more aware of things, and they will more likely know BP changed their name, but it's still BP and there is no getting around that.
I like the money BP is spending on ads to convince us they're doing their job. I'm not sure it's really up to BP to determine and wish they'd spend less money on corporate damage control and more on making sure this doesn't happen again.
That's a whole other bag of worms, Caedmon. Avoiding future incidents assumes we even know about them, which for the most part we don't. It would mean changing something so fundamental to our climate of interaction between corporation and government, something utterly revolutionary. Right now, the two are teamed up against us, mostly because too many people make too much money that way.
The ads are quite well done, but I believe they are some of the worst lies ever splattered on the TV screen. What I know is not secret, but not easily learned by those outside the petroleum industry. I have at least one friend working in that very oil field, and what he tells me has taught me the likes of BP is criminal to the core, and arrogant about it. The management would not bat an eye at poisoning thousands of coastal residents (never mind non-human life) if it meant profits.
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