May 18: Take Your $25 Million, BP, And......

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Tarballs from the gulf oil spill are starting to wash up in Key West. British Petroleum's solution? Spend $25 million to tell the world in ads that everything is fine.

Not that viewers will give any credibility at this point to a company whose ineptness and unethical behavior, with the blessings of the United States government and plenty of politicians fortified by campaign cash, created this disaster. Like Toyota, BP wants to use the "smiley-face solution" instead of accepting blame.

Most Floridians would doubtless like to tell BP where they can stick that $25 million. What the company should do is use it to clean up the spill and prevent future ones. That's the best PR of all.