• USA Today, Monday, June 14, 2010 10:37 AM

No less than Howard Rubenstein, the dean of the public relations industry, says that BP has "created a Frankenstein of a PR problem" by trying to minimize the problem it created. "You can't do that in a crisis of this magnitude," he tells Bruce Horovitz.

That said, there are steps the company can and should take to repair its disintegrating image. Rubenstein suggests quickly getting billions of dollars into the hands of Americans whose lives and livelihoods have been upended, for one. Other PR executives offer more long-term initiatives, from going "ultra green" to giving free gas to nonprofits in affected areas, and steep discounts to regular folk.

It would also help to listen instead of talk, says crisis communications specialist Blake Lewis. Lynne Doll, president of The Rogers Group, suggests polling the public on what it wants, making public heroes out of community members and workers who take extraordinary actions, and handing over the head of whomever is eventually found to be responsible for the debacle.

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