British petroleum in crisis: The search for organizational legitimacy through 'Commitment to America' image restoration strategies found in television commercials

The study of organizational crises and crisis communication strategies has been a significant part of academic study that has contributed to understanding how and why organizations respond to crises using strategic image restoration messages. This study involves the search of organizational legitimacy by British Petroleum before, during and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April of 2010. BP 's commercials prior to the crisis promoted cleaner energy and better gas mileage through corporate research and development. Six commercials involving BP's attempts to restore legitimacy were examined using a grounded approach. The findings resulted in a noticeable shift in commercial messages as BP transitioned from clean energy messages to promote a "Commitment to America" message via their environmental efforts to clean up the oil spill as well as their financial efforts toward the stakeholders who were negatively impacted from the crisis.