Issue and Opponent: In 2012, BP was accepted as a sustainability partner for the London 2021 Olympics. Climate activists were critical of this decision given BP’s poor environmental record.
Dilemma Action: In efforts to draw awareness to how unsuitable BP was for the role as sustainability partner, the Campaign for a More Sustainable Olympics (CAMSOL) created a fake article where the London Organizing Committee of the Olympics and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) broke the news that they were removing BP as their sustainability partner. The article concluded that BP failed to meet standards to serve as a sustainability partner due to its environmental and human rights abuses. CAMSOL also made sure to include BP’s involvement in the destructive Canadian tar sands and Deepwater Horizon disaster, which was considered an ongoing failure, as examples of the company’s destructive environmental impact. The overall purpose of the action was to highlight the unethical decisions that were made to consider BP as a champion of sustainability.
Outcomes: The article was pulled down within minutes. LOCOG and BP both declared the article to be a spoof and slammed the release as a hoax. BP later come out to state that it would not be taking further action and affirmed “We [BP] will remain the sustainability partners to the Olympic Games.” The article gathered a great deal of media attention despite this. Although no concessions were obtained, the board of BP was once again met with questions about their environmental degradation at the BP Annual General Meeting, which occurred the following day.