Exxon Case Study
Exxon Case Study
In the early morning of March 24th 1989 the Exxon Valdez a tanker carrying 55 million gallons crashed into Bligh Reef which is part of Prince William Sound. Prince William Sound is a small isolated town in the outskirts of Alaska. The Exxon Valdez spilled over 38,000 gallons into the waters of Prince William Sound. The toxins from the oil injured 33,000 people and eventually killed 8,000 Alaskan fishermen after years of suffering from side effects from the spill. The Valdez’s accident ending up costing Exxon 2.5 billon dollars in damages and went down as one of the most devastating environmental disasters but it is how Exxon choose to handle it that also made this event one of the biggest mistakes in public relations history.
Exxon’s publics were greatly affected with this event. The main publics who were greatly affected were the people who work for Exxon or associate with them which would be their internal publics. The citizens of Prince William Sound and its environment they would be considered the primary publics in this case. The people of Exxon where effected because of the companies poor public relations strategy. This strategy by Lawrence Rawl the chairman and chief executive of the Exxon Corporation at the time of the spill consisted of many communication errors. His mistakes consisted of not visiting the Prince William Sound area after the event to help express the companies concern and put the public at ease. His second mistake was not consulting with the public at all. But the biggest mistake was that Exxon's chairman, Lawrence G. Rawl, sent a succession of lower-ranking executives to Alaska to deal with the spill instead of going there himself and taking control of the situation in a forceful, highly visible way. This gave the impression that the company regarded the pollution problem as not important enough to involve top management. Exxon decided to concentrate its news briefings in Valdez, a remote Alaskan town with limited
In the early morning of March 24th 1989 the Exxon Valdez a tanker carrying 55 million gallons crashed into Bligh Reef which is part of Prince William Sound. Prince William Sound is a small isolated town in the outskirts of Alaska. The Exxon Valdez spilled over 38,000 gallons into the waters of Prince William Sound. The toxins from the oil injured 33,000 people and eventually killed 8,000 Alaskan fishermen after years of suffering from side effects from the spill. The Valdez’s accident ending up costing Exxon 2.5 billon dollars in damages and went down as one of the most devastating environmental disasters but it is how Exxon choose to handle it that also made this event one of the biggest mistakes in public relations history.
Exxon’s publics were greatly affected with this event. The main publics who were greatly affected were the people who work for Exxon or associate with them which would be their internal publics. The citizens of Prince William Sound and its environment they would be considered the primary publics in this case. The people of Exxon where effected because of the companies poor public relations strategy. This strategy by Lawrence Rawl the chairman and chief executive of the Exxon Corporation at the time of the spill consisted of many communication errors. His mistakes consisted of not visiting the Prince William Sound area after the event to help express the companies concern and put the public at ease. His second mistake was not consulting with the public at all. But the biggest mistake was that Exxon's chairman, Lawrence G. Rawl, sent a succession of lower-ranking executives to Alaska to deal with the spill instead of going there himself and taking control of the situation in a forceful, highly visible way. This gave the impression that the company regarded the pollution problem as not important enough to involve top management. Exxon decided to concentrate its news briefings in Valdez, a remote Alaskan town with limited