"British Petroleum deeply regrets its error in apologizing for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill," said Sandy Logan, a spokesperson for the company. "It has been our goal and desire from the beginning to make amends, and we wanted people to know that. Clearly, we did not express ourselves well, and we would like to extend our sincere apologies to those who were upset or afflicted by our apology." BP's CEO, Tony Hayward, has also told reporters, "This apology was a tragic misstep that never should have happened. We will do everything we can so this never happens again."
The company submitted its original apology in the form of a commercial featuring Hayward that appeared on national television beginning last week, and also ran advertisements in major newspapers. Phrases in the ads such as "We will make this right" caused widespread anger and mockery. Environmentalists and other critics have pointed out that the damage to wildlife and to the livelihoods of fishermen and small-business owners along the Gulf coast is already done. "What are they going to make right?" asked Andrew Benedict, a fisherman in Venice, Louisiana. "Can they bring the fish and the birds back to life?"
"British Petroleum is committed to cleaning up this spill," said Logan. However, "out of consideration for people's feelings, we will try to downplay this commitment as much as possible." If necessary, she added, the company will even fight attempts to hold it financially accountable for the damage, "just so people don't have to see how sorry we are."
In the meantime, Logan said, the company has taken out full-page ads in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, scheduled to run tomorrow. "These ads express 'our sincere apology for the pain and suffering we have caused by apologizing. We have learned from this difficult experience, and we will make this right.' Oops, did that make it into the final version? Excuse me, I have to make some calls."
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