BP Advertisement Spending Triples

Undoubtedly, any television viewer in the last few months has seen the campaign that BP has been running since the fateful Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  From April to July, the months directly after the spill, BP spent $93.4 million on advertisements in print, on television, and via the internet, reports U.S. Representative Henry Waxman, a Democrat  from California and the head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to Kathy Castor, a Floridian Democratic congresswoman who asked for the figures.  BP’s most recent spending is nearly three times as much as was spent between April and July in 2009.

In 2009, BP ran newspaper ads in two states and the District of Columbia.  Now, 17 states and 126 cities are seeing BP newspaper ads.  Similarly, $89.5 million has been spent to promote tourism in gulf coast states since the spill.  That number includes funds that could have been used for more advertisements.

The spending on advertising has been attributed to BP’s efforts to keep Gulf coast residents informed.  However, in the wake of all the spending, payment on business and state claims have been suffering.  BP has agreed with the Obama administration to put $20 billion toward claims and damage payments in an effort to follow their newly begotten promise to “make it right.”