myPRfeed

As the third-quarter came to a close for financial markets last month, oil companies across the globe drew harsh criticism.  While average people struggled to fill their tanks, were rendered unemployed, and forced to give up their homes, corporations like ExxonMobile recorded their highest quarterly profits ever.  Exxon’s profits for the first three quarters was $37.4 billion, almost what it made in its entire record year in 2007.  Calls of corporate greed, then, are no surprise.  However, the times have quickly changed.  Oil prices have plummeted, falling 60 percent since July, and corporate executives are looking at shrinking profits as a result.  With the context changing, a new strategy in repairing the images of the oil giants might be appropriate…

Discussion Questions:

1.  How have oil companies tried to repair their public image while gas prices have been high?  What was the basic message in many of their advertisements in the last year?

2.  Why is there a need for oil companies to maintain a good public image?  What do they have to lose when their image suffers?

3.  How could oil companies use the current news of falling oil prices to repair their image?  How could they use the fact of falling prices to respond to charges of corporate greed?