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BP Goes Back to Black
BP is about to join the scramble for the tar sands. 'Beyond petroleum' has become 'back to black' as BP's plunge into the most destructive extraction project on Earth makes a mockery of its own PR greenwash. On Fossil Fools day, 2010, London Rising Tide and the London Tar Sands Network decided to help BP with a rebranding strategy to reflect their renewed commitment to environmental devastation and catastrophic climate change. Unfortunately, BP's UK head office didn't appreciate the delivery of the new 'back to black' marketing materials, although they kindly decided not to press charges over the 'criminal damage' caused by the protest. Sadly no-one seems to be pressing charges against the corporations engaged in planetary scale criminal damage in the Canadian tar sands.
Rising Tide is a environmental campaign network that specialises in creative protest. They don't get the publicity they deserve compared to larger, wealthier organisations. This action took place a few weeks before the Gulf Oil Spill catastrophe; BP would probably prefer ‘Back to Black’ to their current status as British Pariah.
At the end of the shoot the photographer Zoe Cormier and I stayed behind to get some shots of the Back to Black sign being removed. Two police officers detained us and threatened us with arrest, court orders and rendition (not the last one) if we didn’t hand over our photos / video, with their evidence of heinous criminal damage (a plywood sign D-locked to BP’s railings). I couldn’t work out why they didn’t just rip the plywood sign off, but apparently that would have constituted criminal damage against our property..
I missed getting a shot of the sign being attached to BP’s railings: it’s a good idea to have more than one cameraperson to make sure everything gets covered. It was also a good lesson in making sure you know your media rights and handling police intimidation.
Much of the audio was useless due to noisy roadworks taking place opposite the BP building, but a bit of Matt & Kim covered it up quite well. Pete Davis did a great job as the slick PR consultant, and it was a fun incorporating him into BP’s 2009 corporate video: The next best thing to having graphic design skills is borrowing your opponent's.
Richard Attenborough gives a bemused private a colonial dressing down in the 1964 film Guns At Batasi.
Greenpeace UK shut down a BP petrol station. (Vanity disclaimer: I’m the 2nd assistant ladder bearer at the start).
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