Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Well, the Hobbits, At Least, Should Be Pleased

BP Chairman: 'We Care About the Small People' : "BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg today said that President Obama “is frustrated because he cares about the small people. And we care about the small people. I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are really companies that don’t care, but that is not the case in BP, we care about the small people.”

The Swedish-born Svanberg made his comments after a more than four hour meeting between BP executives and White House officials, including President Obama."

Here's a hint, ya'll. The next time you have someone make a statement on your behalf, you might want to make sure he or she is either a native English speaker or someone who understands the language's idioms. Because you're gonna get crucified for this.

4 comments:

  1. This is truly a case where eliminating the adjective entirely would have been best.

    But it is illuminating of their (BP's) mindset, no?

    Lymaree

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've never been a fan of references to "the little people" when talking about, you know, everyone BUT YOU, as it seems condescending and patronizing, etc.

    But I totally agree that when your company is the current scapegoat du jour (and with good reason in this case), that you put somebody upfront that knows what the hell they're doing. Of course, I kind of doubt execs at BP are lining up to be the face and voice of the company.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wondered why Hayward had such a smug grin on his chops when they left the White House ... then I saw this on Google news: BP Stocks surge after $20 billion deal ...

    Estimates last night were ranging from 60-100 billion that need to be set aside.

    Something tells me the small people will be waiting a long time to see dime 1 of what they'll need.

    ReplyDelete