“I think high self-esteem is overrated. A little low self-esteem is actually quite good. Maybe you’re not the best, so you should work a little harder.”
—Jay Leno

I don’t know who the PR point person is for BP, but clearly he or she is doing a terrible job. Or maybe a great job and BP is simply not listening, otherwise  there wouldn’t be so many horrible gaffes like these.

I do know, though, that if BP’s media relations were handled by BP Media Relations, then they’d be in a far better place today.

In a weird twist of fate, the oil spill in the Gulf has reached the shores of New York’s Central Park, where BP Media Relations has absolutely nothing to do with the oil industry and everything to do with being a boutique media relations agency that understands all the changes digital communications have brought to the PR profession, and continues to remain three steps ahead of the curve.

The fateful twist: Do a Google search for “British Petroleum media relations” and BP Media Relations appears as the number-one result. (More bad news for BP: Do a Google search for “British Petroleum PR agency” and this fake Twitter account appears as the number-one result.)

Barbara Pflughaupt is the “BP” in question of BP Media Relations. I’ve known and worked with her for about 15 years, and as you might imagine: She has a tough enough time making sure people spell her name correctly without having to worry that anyone’s first impression of her company is being ruined by British Petroleum’s negligence and Tony Hayward’s tin ear for the media.

Then again, who knows: Maybe someone with a far greater audience than this blog will do a story about “BP Media Relations” and she’ll win a fistful of new clients. Should that happen, I know one thing for certain: BP Media Relations will do a hell of a lot better job for those clients than British Petroleum’s agency, whoever they are, is doing for them.

Every once in a while it’s fun to look at teevee ads from back in the day. Clearly advertising has changed, but the advertising audience has changed, too.

Information Week reports on a McAfee study that concludes teens share too much information online. Not surprising. Adults, too.

Steven Johnson investigates the implications — and examines the focus vs. connection issue — in an interesting article from yesterday’s New York Times.