BP was so busy worrying about their image in the wake of the tragic and devastatng Oil Spill that they didn't do their homework about hiring a public relations agency in the U.S. that would know how to create messaging for the top leadership and media train them for when they face the media. This is so evident by the remarks made by CEO Carl Svanberg who showed his sympathy with President Obama in worrying about the "small people."
While the media made hay with this phrase jumping all over the CEO about it, it should have never happened in the first place.
If a CEO of a global giant like BP is not that fluent in English, he should ensure that he has a U.S. agency that prepares him for whatever he might be saying in front of the cameras as he emerges from the hearings investigating BP's responsibility in paying for their crime of polluting American waters and destroying ways of life and animal/fish species for years, if not centuries in the Gulf of Mexico. If they had a U.S.-based agency, he never would have used the term "small" to describe the hard-working people of the Gulf who depend on fishing, shrimping and tourism to make a living, and whose livelihood is now in jeopardy.
Using the term "small" people reminds me of the hotel magnate Leona Helmsley who said that "only the little people pay taxes," something that villified her in the public's mind and sent her to jail for tax evasion.
There's enormous value in having an experienced and proactive public relations agency that helps to mitigate the damage to the reputation of a company as much as is possible in such a tragedy. Obviously, that was another mistake or cost-saving made by BP that will cost them in the court of public opinion for years.
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