The devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the actions of BP have made me reflect on some best practices for online advertising. It all started over the weekend for me when I was watching the news online. Video from YouTube about animals dying because of the oil spill was the subject and all of a sudden an advertisement for BP showed on the bottom of the frame. Here is the image:

My first question is why would I want to Friend BP on YouTube? More importantly, why is BP spending money on advertising when all we want them to do is fix the spill.

I see this as an example of how brands have less control of perception than ever before. BP is attempting to be the source of information about the oil spill be owning areas of a search result or in my case, a section of a video. The problem is no amount of money can change perception when information travels so quickly and easily in cyberspace. Furthermore, being careless with keyword selection can end up hurting you when your advertisement is aligned with an unfavorable story.

Here are further examples:

Digital Marketing Take Away:

Listen to what people want and  do the right thing. Business cannot buy good press any longer, so forget about trying to pay for positive perceptions.