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BP inappropriately handled this crisis because the company initially chose CEO Tony Hayward as its spokesperson, and the American public perceived Hayward as arrogant, uncaring and out of touch about the spill’s effect on the Gulf Coast. Following the spill, Hayward made statements to the media such as “There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do. You know, I’d like my life back” (climatebrad, 2010). Hayward also said in the days following the spill that that its impact on the Gulf environment would likely be “very, very modest” (climatebrad, 2010), and noted that the amount of oil was tiny when compared with the volume of water in the ocean (Webb, 2010). In the weeks following the spill, Hayward consistently downplayed the amount of spilled oil and its impact on the Gulf economy and ecosystem (CBS News, 2010). Hayward’s words were perceived by the American public – and especially Gulf Coast residents – as arrogant, out of touch, and callous; the New York Daily News at the time even branded Hayward “the most hated – and most clueless – man in America” (Kennedy, 2010). In news interviews, Gulf Coast residents often expressed distrust and extreme dislike of BP executives, including Hayward (CBS News, 2010). According to W. Timothy Coombs in “Crisis Management and Communications,” a key component of crisis team training is spokesperson training (2007). Coombs notes that a spokesperson should follow crisis communication best practices, such as expressing sympathy for the victims of a crisis, making public safety the top priority, and providing counseling to victims of the crisis and their families. Hayward failed as a spokesperson because his comments about the explosion and spill were perceived by the American public as arrogant, uncaring and out of touch with the environmental and economic disaster that Gulf Coast residents were experiencing.

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