When Oil Spills Go Viral
Viral videos are a phenomenon particular to Internet culture. At best, they tap into widespread cultural psyche, opening up a well-considered issue for commentary and more often than not, pillory or parody (Obama girl or United Breaks Guitars). At worst they confirm the opinion of many that sites such as YouTube have simply become a stage for the banal and mediocre to take undeserved status (via millions of views), consuming space better deserved for other artists or productions. Numa Numa is one of the worst but then again, what's so great about Funny Cats? Luckily, UBC Comedy's video 'BP Spills Coffee' falls into the former category, and with almost 8 million views as of 28th June. Beneath the humor of crudely characterized corporate lackeys, the skit has likely tapped into frustration with a company and the oil industry. Additionally, it connects with the concerns of many regarding the broader environment and social climate that allows these practices, such as BP's gross negligence, to thrive and persist.
Allegory - Coffee to Oil
The video begins with an innocent coffee spill which becomes an empty debate on how to stop the spill, before turning into widespread panic amongst the hapless boardroom attendees, whose pathetic attempts at containing the spill (e.g. throwing hair onto the coffee) only exacerbate the problem. External consultants and Halliburton suits are similarly ineffective, and 48 days later the boardroom table is a neglected wasteland of coffee cups, paper towels, hair and sushi trays (in hilariously simple allusion to damaged sea life). Throughout the unfolding events is a central and recurring theme, with every action the BP employees are only worried about themselves. While the employees' prolific incompetency and selfishness is in satiric traditions, it also reflects the views of many who question the decisions and motives of BP's management in taking the risks that allowed such disastrous damage to be done to the environment and livelihood of local fishing industries.
Coffee and Oil - An Aside
While it was likely an unintentional decision, coffee is an interesting choice as an oil metaphor. Increasingly, the takeaway coffee is undergoing an anti-oil revolution of it's own with focus on takeaway coffee cups, consumed at a rate of millions daily worldwide (estimated at above 16 billion/year in the U.S. alone). Most takeaway coffee cups are lined with an oil-based resin for insulation and to stop coffee leaking from the cup. The environmental impacts are significant, and the industry is beginning to move toward non-oil based alternatives, as evidenced by the Starbucks sponsored Betacup project, promoting the development of a reusable coffee cup.
The oil consumed throughout the coffee supply chain, from growing a coffee to feeding the worldwide love affair with the beverage, are enough for coffee chains to take notice in reducing their oil-based impact on landfill and emissions. Thus it is interesting that UBC's video shows Halliburton - as the Gulf spill's other guilty party - providing styrofoam (read: cement) cups for the boardroom coffee, with BP employees insisting they share the blame for the spill.
The Value of Viral
Of course the BP spill, while certainly one of the largest, is not the first of it's kind. British Petroleum has been responsible for some of the most damaging instances of rig failures, including the 1965 Sea Gem oil rig disaster. The corporations' history is stained with deceit and dubious practices in an endless pursuit for profit, including (famously) their collusion with the CIA in overthrowing Iran's Government in 1953. The Gulf of Mexico spill is merely one of their more publicized failures (shattering the idea of safe offshore oil drilling), perhaps due to it's proximity to the U.S. Unlike previous decades, in this age of social media it is more difficult to suppress public dissent. As the UCB team have deftly demonstrated, channeling criticism into ridicule can also be a way for the broader community to share their frustration, albeit in a darkly comical manner.
The sheer volume of viral video audiences (in the multi-millions within weeks) and their accessibility also have the power to create public awareness of social events, their history (e.g. how the political power and arrogance of large corporations is borne), and what people can do about these issues on a grassroots level. Viral, for so long a negatively laced term, has in some instances, been turned into a shining light of the Web 2.0 generation.
