Greenpeace activists hoist a flag after climbing on to a balcony at BP headquarters in London.

Full disclosure here: I’m a journalist’s daughter. Actually, I’m a columnist’s daughter, so there goes the impartiality. And yes, this blog post comes straight on the heels of some paternal prose. But I can’t help but think that it’s about time Coley Porter Bell weighed in on the BP brand in the face of the Deepwater disaster.

BP’s rebrand ten years ago has been held up as one of our industry’s biggest success stories: a tired, uninspiring oil company making the leap into the shiny future of renewable energy, going ‘beyond petroleum’. Employees embraced the new ethos, the bottom line flourished, and the company’s reputation as a leader in corporate sustainability efforts was cemented in the public consciousness. BP was sitting pretty.

And then in April, disaster struck.

To be clear: this is a disaster, no doubt about it. The victims of the oil rig explosion are not only the eleven people who lost their lives, but their families, the population of the Gulf Coast, and countless species of animals in the area. We have no idea how the situation will play out, or how much damage will ultimately be done. It’s scary stuff - the sort of fiasco that can relegate a company to the black hole of contempt in people’s minds. And while the BP brand will take a hit, ultimately I believe it will make it through. There are two reasons for that.

First, BP’s longstanding and considerable investment in brand-building will have helped to futureproof them against public relations disasters just like this one. Compared to energy companies with less inspiring brands (ahem, Shell and Exxon), BP seems like the good guy. Instinctively, we tend to believe they’ll right this wrong, and continue on their virtuous path. That’s what it means to have captured the hearts and minds of consumers.

Second, BP has done more than simply building a brand, they’ve built a culture. The open, honest, optimism that’s core to their brand has come through in their response to the oil spill. Sure, there were some hiccups at the start, but ultimately, they’ve raised their game. BP leadership is truly living their brand, reinforcing their positioning with every press conference, every shared internal document, every apology. The BP brand, it seems, is more than just a cheery logo.

We’ll have to wait and see how this all nets out, but this blogger’s money is on a triumphant BP brand re-emerging. Eventually.

With Coley Porter Bell being a design agency, inevitably, we print things. A lot. Our recycling bins fill up very quickly. Recycling’s great, but how about the other R, re-using?

We decided to take printed paper that was no longer needed and turn it into A5 notepads. By folding the pages inwards and ring binding, we’re left with fully blank pages ready to be scribbled on. An energetic painerly stenciled version of our logo adds colour to the covers. They’ll only ever be for internal use and thanks to the help of our ever enthusiastic placements, Hannah and Carina, all our desks are now graced with one. With printing not likely to cease any time soon, there will be plenty of paper for replacements too. Then of course, we can recycle the first ones!

BRANDZ has released the 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2009. I will skate over and around the methodology for BRANDZ - you can read all about that on the website, here - and instead offer a couple of interesting, top-line snippets.

Inspite of the recession, the value of the top 100 brands increased by 2% to $2 trillion. This means that brand share is a greater percentage of total company value.

This is an excellent example of how to present information in a compelling way. It is a piece called Shift Happens by Karl Fisch. It was originally put together as a faculty presentation on what was new and different in the the Colarado school where Karl worked. This is the updated version. The music is nice. 

A company called XPLANE helped with a redesign. XPLANE refer to themselves as “the visual thinking company”. They use visualization to make complex ideas, processes and information clearer, and in turn making better decision-making. Their CEO, Dave Gray, also has an excellent blog (amongst many) called Communication Nation, which is dedicated to helping us improve our communication skills.

Last night’s episode of The Apprentice was one of the most cringe-worthy yet. The task involved each team creating a new children’s cereal brand from scratch. They had to devise the name, the packaging including a character and a TV ad in the space of 48 hours. (CPB helped with last year’s task to create a tissue brand and it really is an overnight job.)