Brandjack News

American media do not seem to have jumped straight in to allocating blame for the collision of the Dali with the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore. The bridge collapsed almost immediately. 

As an analyst of media coverage, not an engineer, Brandjack News can't help wondering why the media are being so reticent. This was not the case with, for example, the BP oil spill in 2010. 

Certainly, the ownership and responsibility in this case is complicated. The ship is owned and operated by a company based in Singapore (Synergy Group) and chartered by the Danish logistics company, Maersk. Maersk's branding is clearly visible on the containers in many of the media visuals. 

But complexity was an issue in 2010, too. The oil rig was owned by one company and operated by another. Several partners were involved in the construction. But the media almost immediately latched on to BP as the target of all blame. 

Perhaps the media are awaiting reports from the NTSB, which investigates transportation disasters. Maybe, but waiting for the facts is not standard operating procedure. The story is current NOW, and the media usually want a villain when they are conducting their initial reports. 

Perhaps the biggest difference is that in 2010 the media could identify as villain a business with a well known brand: BP. In this case, both Synergy Group and Maersk are huge global businesses, but few consumers deal with them directly. 

Maersk has also seen barely a blip in its share price since the accident, though it has been on a slight downward trend this year in any case. The fall on March 26th was barely perceptible, and the price that day was up on a week previously. It has recovered slightly since then. It seems as though markets are not expecting Maersk to face a big liability.