Dripping with insincerity
Published 3:59 pm Monday, June 21, 2010
We’re sorry, but we just have to say it: We’re getting sick of apologies.
Not the sincere, personal ones. Owning up to a transgression and expressing true remorse is almost always the right thing to do. Especially if it’s accompanied by an honest effort to learn from the mistake.
The apologies that are grating on us — and, we suspect, most Americans — are the grand, public ones bubbling out of the BP oil-spill disaster.
BP CEO Tony Hayward is so sorry about the damage his company has caused that it’s spending a reported $50 million to have him tell us so in TV ads that are certainly slick — like black crude on water.
Some marketing experts have opined that it’s not money well spent, and apparently the company now agrees. BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said Friday that he was removing Hayward from day-to-day oversight of the spill response. That was the day after more apologies from Hayward fell flat before an unsympathetic congressional committee.
Well, not entirely unsympathetic. Texas Rep. Joe Barton (R-oil industry) actually apologized to Hayward for what he described as a shakedown of BP by the White House, which had gotten the company to set aside $20 billion in an escrow fund to pay claims.
Such unseemly behavior, in an election year no less, got the attention of the House GOP leadership, which reportedly demanded Barton apologize for his apology or they would unapologetically strip him of his status as ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Barton’s apology for his apology was deemed insufficient, and he ended up issuing a more detailed, written apology later in the day. Such sincerity.
At least the apology issued earlier in the week by Svanberg, the BP chairman, had an element of credibility.
Svanberg, whose native language is Swedish, said he was “very sorry” for speaking “clumsily” after referring to Gulf Coast residents who have been hurt by the spill as “the small people.” Some linguists have suggested Svanberg’s unfortunate choice of words had more to do with a slip in translation than insensitivity.
Indeed, his apology contained something everyone actually wants to hear:
“What I was trying to say — that BP understands how deeply this affects the lives of people who live along the gulf and depend on it for their livelihood — will best be conveyed not by any words but by the work we do to put things right for the families and businesses who’ve been hurt.”
Indeed, actions mean so much more than words. Especially empty ones, which we’ve heard far too many of lately.
