Channel: The Exxon Valdez Oil

¶ … Channel: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound by John Keeble. Specifically, it will emphasize the public relations aspect of the disaster and a critique of how Exxon handled the public relations dimension of the incident. The 1989 oil spill in Prince William Sound was a national tragedy and the effects of it may linger for eons. Even more tragic is how the Exxon Company dealt with the spill. A public relations nightmare, the company tried to clean up the Sound and create goodwill among the residents of the area. However, as one resident said, "Spiritual cleanup is what we needed. Physical cleanup would not address the underlying problems'" (Keeble 157). This book looks at the emotional costs of the oil spill, something Exxon could not, or would not acknowledge or address.

It is quite clear from reading this book that most of the residents of the area affected by the oil spill did not like Exxon or they way they "managed" the oil spill. One resident said, "The basic problem [...] started with Exxon's inability to see the world. They're concerned with PR, not cleanup. The little people getting screwed over by these companies have to start thinking big'" (Keeble 185). The entire management of cleanup seemed confused, mismanaged, and inefficient, and meanwhile, the oil was contaminating more shoreline, more fishing waters, and killing more animals. Exxon may have been concerned with global PR, but in the area most affected by the spill, Prince William Sound and the many small communities around the area, they did not seem concerned at all. In fact, to many people they seemed adversarial and difficult to deal with. The author calls their attitude one of "colonialism" and that many of their managers had little or no experience with oil spills and the affected areas. It sounds like a public relations nightmare, but it also sounds like a tragically mismanaged set of events that continued to snowball long after the ship ran aground.

Exxon spent millions of dollars in media advertising and other costs to make it look good during and after the cleanup effort. It sent four million dollars to the Alaska State Tourism division, and created ad campaigns to "reassure" people that Prince William Sound would be back to normal in no time. Exxon's position was that they were open and honest with the press, but the author's experiences instead show a company that will do anything to cover its' tracks and its' inadequacies. He notes, "The response to stricken animals was forced upon Exxon by the Department of the Interior and the public. Exxon's interest in tourism was also one of alleviating its own bad reputation; most of the 1,090 miles of oiled shoreline had been insufficiently treated" (Keeble 227). Exxon did what it had to do to look good to the public. As the author notes, they "threw money" toward the problem but had no real plan of attack or idea how they would actually clean the entire affected area. Exxon used its power and money to look good, rather than really fix the problem.