The Tarnished Star

Abstract

When a secret tape of an executive meeting surfaced, Texaco was accused of racism. A memorable sound bite referred to African Americans as “black jelly beans” who were “glued to the bottom of the jar”. This study examines management’s response to this image crisis. Peter Bijur, chair of Texaco, disseminated six messages enacting four image restoration strategies: bolstering, corrective action, mortification, and shifting the blame. However, the blame was not transferred to an external entity but to a subgroup of the accused (a small group of employees characterized as “bad apples”). For this strategy to be effective, the target group must be identified and clearly distanced (separated) from the rhetor engaging in image repair.