you know, i wondered after seeing all the BP commercials since the oil spill, how much money are they spending on trying to save their image through advertising. Money that could be going to the families of the workers down there, or money that could be used to improve safety standards, clean that sh!t up, compensate the families of the 11 that were killed, the thousands of jobs that were lost because of their actions or lack thereof. BP spent $93M on advertising after Gulf spill - Yahoo! News
In their defense (someone's gotta be the devil's advocate here), it's not like they aren't... Of course the media wouldn't acknowledge that. See below: $20 Billion set up in a claims fund, $3 billion of which has been deposited ahead of schedule. $500 Million towards researching the impact of the spill/dispersants $400 Million paid out already in claims to date $360 Million toward building berms for the Louisiana barrier island project $175 Million in block grants to the affected states $100 Million to help fund oil workers put out of work by some moratorium that got rammed through (surprised the gov't didn't try to block this 100 million for whatever reason).. $70 Million to help boost tourism to the Gulf states $50 Million in funds for people who were mentally traumatized by the spill $13 million paid out so far from the sale of refined, recovered oil And whatever they've spent on paying to mobilize something like 6,000 vessels + crews to help clean up.. That amounts to about $21.6 Billion so far. They've also announced that they're selling $30 billion in assets to cover it, and have some left over in case it's needed. Now.. Granted, a lot of this is just commitments; they'll have to live up to them. I'm not saying that they're not a piss poor, regulation dodging, poorly managed company, who thought they could cut corners and get away with it forever. They are just that.. I'm not saying they shouldn't have to pay, they most certainly should. But it's not like they're not doing anything other than spending a little money to save face. That little 93 million isn't much in the grand scheme of things, compared to what they're on the hook for. But then again, why would the media want to include ALL the facts? That wouldn't be any fun.
I was listening to WWL this morning, even w/ the new firm in charge of claim checks, only ab out 10% of them were getting approved, even though "minimal documentation" was supposedly needed. The claims are getting stonewalled for the exact same reasons that BP was denying them for before - documentation. I am sure a small % of people are trying to take advantage of this w/ a false claim, but sheesh, a 90% denial rate? Give me a break.
Businesses have to advertise to make sales. BP has to make sales to stay in business. BP must stay in business to pay off its claims and survive. Therefore I have no issue with BP advertising.
Red i wouldn't either, but like Kyle pointed out 90% denial rate? I don't want to hear about Iris Cross who is from New Orleans and works for BP and they will be down there as long as it takes, and blah blah blah. There are jobless, homeless in some instances, and foodless people down there, and BP is dishing out 93 mil in commercials? To me is extremely arrogant, and it's also extremely wrong. Let em advertise, but that **** shouldn't be shown in Louisiana. And they should never be allowed to drill in the Gulf again. Let some company with a better safety record do it. I mean why should they get to use the excuse "well we are business, we have to make money, blah blah" screw you, you need fix what you ****ed, and then worry about that.
Funny, I can't find one single article that supports the notion that 90% of the claims are being denied. Surely the media would be all over this if it were true... I mean they've had no problem going after them for anything else. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough. But the worst thing I've found is that they're taking too long with the "pending" claims. But even that's a far cry from denying 90% of them.
So basically your stance is, that it's a ****ty thing to do, but business is business, correct? I understand that, and you are right if that is what your stance is, but it's like if one of those Texas daycares who are always on the news and you can ask anyone in D/FW about this. There are daycares there that every summer end up leaving a kid locked in a car that dies of heat exhaustion or they get caught abusing the children. This is like one of those daycares having a commercial about their safety record, and how great they are, and how committed they are to safety. I understand it is their right as a business to do so, and i recognize that right, but is it morally right?
I don't see it as wrong. If they hadn't paid out anything already and spent that 100 million at the get go, then yes I'd probably have an issue with it. However, they've spent or committed to spending over 200 times that amount, and have paid out about 400 million already in 17 weeks.. In lieu of that, I don't think they're doing anything that bad. So, no I don't question the morality of the move. If I were to ask them something though, my question to them would be, "You really think $93 million is going to make a difference in what people think about you?". With that in mind, I could see where someone might view it as wasteful spending, and that those funds could be better utilized, but like you acknowledged, it's BP's prerogative. If I were in charge, would I do things differently? Maybe so. But I see nothing wrong with what they've done, considering that they've paid already (albeit slowly), and what they're on the hook for. I guess my point was that it just seems that the AP conveniently left out what BP HAS done thus far, and focused on what they haven't done, and built the story from that. Of course, it's not like news gets readers.. Drama does. All the networks do it and it's just unfortunate that so many people go for it hook, line, and sinker.
It's not a 90% denial rate. It's a 94 % rate of unprocessed claims that lacked any documentation. Claims have been paid within 48 hours after documentation is received. People have walked in without proper ID and others claimed to make $100K as a shrimper and cannot produce a tax document that supports this. People who have been unemployed for 3 years are trying to claim that BP owes them for the last 5 months. A lot of people are owed legitimate money, but scam artists and folks looking to "enhance" their losses are trying to exploit the system. LINK
People who earned ca$h money but didn't report it to the IRS are going to have a tough time collecting. They's have to admit tax evasion to "prove" their claim.
