Just as Amoco signs disappear from the American landscape, BP has rolled out a nationwide advertising campaign to announce its entrance into the US market. Ubiquitous television commercials feature consumers pontificating about the necessary evil of oil and imploring the industry to exploit cleaner renewable energy sources. The adverts then tout BP's commitment to the concerns raised by these supposedly average, everyday Americans.
In print and on billboards, advertisements have attempted to simplify BP's message, highlighting the most important points in florescent yellow: from the blunt 'cleaner fuels', to the trite 'harness the energy'.
Since acquiring Amoco in 1999, BP has aggressively rebranded itself 'Beyond Petroleum', recasting the company in a greener image. This newfound devotion to the environment is not completely altruistic, nor is it the primary motive for the name change. The company, still known to most of the world as British Petroleum, likely recognised it was economic suicide to be identified as a foreign entity in an increasingly ethnocentric US market, and thus assumed its new, geographically vague moniker.
Given the poor environmental track record of petroleum companies, it is easy to be sceptical about the recent wave of environmental corporate responsibility sweeping the industry. Cynics contend that BP and other petroleum companies are just standing under the shower of environmentalism for a quick - and disingenuous - 'greenwash'.
Nonetheless, that BP has acknowledged its weakness on environmental issues, and is going to great lengths to announce its dedication to the cause, is a good first step. The industry has made some inroads in adopting a more eco-friendly business strategy. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the increasingly environmentally conscious, and incredibly important, Chinese market.
China was at issue in a 2001 revolt of BP shareholders. Pointing to environmental and human-rights concerns in Tibet, a small but vocal group of shareholders filed a motion for BP to divest itself of a minority interest in Petrochina, China's largest petroleum company.