BP Needs to Tell Whining Americans to Take a Hike

[Robbien]

June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Ever since oil started gushing from its well in the Gulf of Mexico, the British energy company BP Plc has responded precisely the way you'd expect from a massive corporation caught up in a terrible mess.

It has sent its public-relations staff out to grovel abjectly on television. It has run around trying to make it look like it's doing something, even if it is only stuffing old socks into the leaking well. Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward has been wringing his hands at every available opportunity.

But this is a catastrophe on a whole new scale. Traditional responses won't work. In fact, there are no words BP can use to apologize sufficiently for the damage the leak has caused. Whatever it says, it's still going to be the most reviled company in America.

Instead BP should try a different tack. It should tell the U.S., and everybody in it, to go take a hike. In reality, the U.S. is guilty of the most appalling hypocrisy. It's too late to rescue BP's reputation now; all it can realistically hope for is to salvage as much money for shareholders as possible.

. . .

Finally, BP needs to protect its shareholders. So sell your assets in the U.S. to one of the other energy majors while you still can. Just remember there's a big world out there, with a lot of oil and cars in it. Your job is to look after the owners of the company, not make yourself acceptable to a country that doesn't want you anymore.

Of course, doing this really will make Hayward the most- hated man in the country. But then, who cares? George W. Bush was the most-hated man in France, but since he wasn't looking for any votes in Bordeaux, it didn't count for much.

BP's image in the U.S. matters only so long as it tries to do business in the U.S. If it cuts its losses and gets out now, it can carry on fine in Japan, France, Argentina and all the other countries where no one is really that bothered by what happens in the Gulf of Mexico.

Just say: "Thanks for everything guys. It was good while it lasted. Sorry about the oil spill, but so it goes. Goodbye and goodnight."

It's the only strategy that's going to work now.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/06/07/bloomberg1376-L3NNPL1A1I4H-2.DTL


Pragmatic but probably true.

[Chulanowa]

1. I say we stuff Matthew Lynn down the hole and call it a day

[Xipe Totec]

2. You can't plug a hole with another a-hole nt

[hlthe2b]

3. Add him to the monumental assholes we can line up, pack together

and stuff in the hole... including of course the "big Dick" and his hateful spawn, Liz.

[Skittles]

4. make that whining conservative Americans, please

this part is rich:

"other countries where no one is really that bothered by what happens in the Gulf of Mexico" - BP thinks other countries wouldn't be concerned it could happen to them too?

[katty]

5. really, isn't that what BP HAS been doing?-PR spin and bullshit

is spewing out just like the leak.

[teknomanzer]

6. Well fuck you too mister...

Certainly the US needs to do something about its consumption, but that does not excuse the corporation from their neglegence in this matter.

And I am sure that BP already intends to fight all lawsuits tooth and nail - so fuck you on that account too. Fucking Asshole.

[Lucky Luciano]

7. I though this was funny...writer is learly sarcastic and pissed off at BP. nt