Will paid search ads help BP repair its image?

Weigh in on whether pay per click a good option for crisis management

Over the past six months or so, we’ve been privy to two of the biggest PR nightmares you can imagine. At the beginning of the year, Toyota was sweating under the spotlight as malfunctioning gas pedals in its vehicles led to several auto crashes. The story kept getting worse and worse, and Toyota was hanging on for dear life as they rode it out.

Now, we’re smack dab in the middle of another PR disaster—the oil spill. This time it’s BP that is drawing the criticism from the public, the media, and the government. And while BP’s first strategy was to play the blame game, they seem to finally realize they need to take things in their own hands and start working to repair their image.

Pay per click: The common bond

While these two crises are different from one another, there is at least one commonality. That is that both Toyota and BP started buying paid search ads in Google and Yahoo to reach out to Internet users and let them know what they’re doing to resolve their issues.