Is BP Finally Moving Beyond Petroleum?

Kneeling in prayer for a sin he doesn’t regret, Shakespeare’s Claudius, Hamlet’s fratricidal uncle, ruefully admits: “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below, / Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”  Claudius knew that empty rhetoric is entirely unpersuasive — a lesson many corporate executives have since learned. In 2000, BP hired the advertisers Ogilvy & Mather to help the company construct an empty prayer. A colorful new logo was created and, with its bank balance no doubt many millions lighter,…