In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Gulf Coast communities faced cascading environmental and economic damage, while national coverage struggled to translate the scale and human impact in real time.
Corporate and federal narratives dominated early coverage. Frontline organizations risked being reduced to secondary voices, limiting public understanding of real-world consequences.
Caplan Communications positioned Mobile Baykeeper as a primary, on-the-ground authority, translating environmental harm into clear stories about livelihoods, public health, and accountability. Over the course of an 87-day, unfolding crisis, we drove sustained earned media, aligned local testimony with national stakes, and imposed message discipline in a volatile, fast-moving news cycle.
Coverage moved from abstract descriptions of an offshore disaster to a grounded account of community and economic impacts and systemic failure.
Mobile Baykeeper became a trusted national source, helping anchor public understanding of the spill and reinforcing the role of frontline organizations in shaping environmental accountability.