It’s been about two and a half years since nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil was dumped into the Gulf of Mexico as the result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the owners of that particular well – BP – would love it if the world would just forget about the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.

Now a key piece has been settled with its $4.5 billion fine, the energy giant is returning to full-on “advertising (in the UK) next year with a campaign showcasing the contribution the company makes to society,” as Marketing Magazine reports. The corporate citizenship-themed push will note its cultural partnerships with the London Royal Opera House and the British Museum as well as its sponsorship of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

Even while the oil was gushing into the Gulf, BP spent nearly $100 million on advertising, CNN reports, three times the amount of cash it had laid out in the same time period the previous year. BP claimed that the increase was partially due to ads it bought in the Gulf Coast region to inform people there about the recovery effort.Continue reading...

As London's museums and galleries get in the swing for the Summer Olympic Games, Google is powering two unique installations that harness the power of its cutting-edge web technologies.

The Science Museum this week unveiled the the Google Chrome Web Lab, a series of five interactive experiments that showcase web technologies and a first-of-its-kind web-based exhibition marries cyberspace and physical space. “We hope to inspire people around the world by showcasing the magic that the Internet makes possible,” blogged Jayme Goldstein, Product Marketing Manager for Chrome.Continue reading...

To most of the world, Brooklyn is a place that once was home to Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers. For all time, it’s been mostly envisioned culturally as a working-class, ethnic-rich borough filled with (depending on the era) plenty of kids playing stickball, unbelievable street basketball, Mafioso, or young toughs. Like Saturday Night Fever’s Tony Manero, everybody in Brooklyn is supposedly looking to get across the Bridge into a supposedly bigger, better, brighter life.

Throughout time, though, there are plenty that have been perfectly happy staying in Brooklyn. You can tell from some of the street signs welcoming motorists there: “Believe the Hype!” “Welcome to Brooklyn – Home to Everyone From Everywhere!” “Name It…We Got It!” Not to mention the ones that some motorists see as they leave the borough: “Oy Vey!” or “Fuhgeddaboudit.”

These are likely the work of work of Borough President/Head Cheerleader Marty Markowitz, but there is another man who is also working to help showcase the borough’s brand: filmmaker Dustin Cohen, who is paying tribute to Brooklyn's artisans and heritage through a series of short films.Continue reading...

British Petroleum has rarely been out of the spotlight since the Deepwater oil spill in 2010 that put nearly five million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This week it's back in the news again, with word that the still-in-turnaround energy giant has extinguished its solar power business.

The simple reason, according to The Guardian, is that — despite being one of the world's largest solar companies — BP says it can't turn a profit on selling panels at a time while it spends $20 billion annually on its oil and gas businesses.

Despite its much-ballyhooed aim to move "beyond petroleum," BP has been quietly closing its solar panel factories in recent years, with around 1,750 workers laid off just in the last three years according to the Guardian. "At the same time," the report adds, "the company has gradually retreated from other areas such as carbon capture and storage and shut down its separate London headquarters for BP Alternative Energy."

Where BP is not scaling back its financial investment: sports, as a London 2012 Olympics partner, and the arts.Continue reading...

The recently opened BMW Guggenheim Lab gives new meaning to pop-up art, as seen in the above video. Reclaiming a rat-and-rubble infested 2,000 square foot East Village lot between Houston and East First Street, the Lab is a social experiment in urban living.

“When people say we’re taking it to the streets, we literally are. Hopefully this will be a petri dish of ideas for the decision makers of tomorrow,” said Richard Armstrong, director of the Guggenheim Foundation.

BMW unveiled the six-year project with the Guggenheim Museum in May, described as a traveling cultural project for cultivating 21st century design and urban living ideas, while including the public with free programs and spaces. Running through October 16 in NYC, more than 100 events are planned centered on the theme “Confronting Comfort” – how to make urban life more livable.Continue reading...

The BMW Guggenheim Lab, which opens tomorrow in New York, gives new meaning to pop-up art.

Reclaiming a rat- and rubble-infested 2,000 square foot East Village lot between Houston and East First Street, the Lab is a social experiment in urban living — through October 16th, when the pop-up co-branded installation takes off on a six-year world tour to inspire eight other cities.Continue reading...

As Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark finally officially opens this week on Broadway (to a less than glowing review from the New York Times), Sesame Street presents its ode to Disney, Marvel and U2's troubled Broadway production — SpiderMonster, the Musical — as a promo for its own return in September.

Ever wonder what your digital life would be like in the real world? Would you meet people the same way? Are the dangers the same? In a trending video on YouTube with over half a million views is a sneak peak of what that would look like. Pretty ridiculous, right? Wrong.

This is actually a promo for Two Boys, an upcoming production of the English National Opera (ENO) that opens on June 23rd, which may be the first opera that deals with the dangers of living our lives online.Continue reading...