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Satirical New Orleans tourism ad takes a swipe at the British

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

June 18, 2010 | 4 min read

New Orleans is no stranger to catastrophe having weathered more than its share of storms in recent times. It is rather more historic events however that that the Gulf Coast city is now harking back to as America’s blues capital faces up to ongoing environmental Armageddon.

“This isn’t the first time New Orleans has survived the British” runs the tagline in the latest tourism campaign, paid for by cash stumped up by BP, which is being broadcast in a series of television and newspaper adverts from today.

BP are of course the villain’s of the moment, but it is their chief executives British accent which seems to have hit a nerve in a country whose perception of the British is coloured by a long (and not always peaceful) relationship.

Comparing the current liquid onslaught lapping its shoreline to an 1814 military campaign in which General Andrew Jackson repelled a British assault the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau is keen to infer that they will prevail once more.

From Obama down Americans have been at pains to stress the “Britishness” of BP, disregarding its status as a multinational company whose markets in America far eclipse those in the land of its birth.

Speaking to The Drum Simon Howson-Green of Rooster, pointed out that the American media had “conveniently forgotten” BP’s partners in crime, Haliburton and Transocean. Both solidly American companies haven’t received the same level of visceral public opprobrium as BP’s hapless Hayward.

"Companies such as BP are perceived as symbols of UK PLC so attacks by the US administration on a company it holds responsible for causing an environmental disaster are being translated – mainly by the media – as an attack on the British people," Said Green.

"This is all part of the love/hate relationship between the US and the UK. We have something similar with the French. This is part of nature and the animosity towards us in the States will have dried up long before the beaches and inlets of Louisiana have been cleaned of crude oil

"In the end we need each other and the people of US Inc and UK PLC will forgive and forget. The loser will almost certainly be BP and perhaps the conveniently forgotten US oil companies who are also involved in this environmental tragedy.

"Bottom line – Obama has an agenda here and his attacks on BP are part of his PR strategy. He is terrified of getting caught out in the way Bush was with Katrina in New Orleans. Poor BP has made a complete and utter mess of its PR and is paying the price."

But such sentiments aren't entirely without precedent, British actors continue to be typecast as villains in Hollywood films after all but is all this just harmless fun which we ought be taking on the chin? No-one wants to be tarred by the same oil slicked brush after all but persevere down to the small print and the ad rejoinders: “right now everyone is welcome, especially our friends from England.”

Britain the brand remains a powerful force in America, but it is to be hoped that current events do not blacken that name as they will do the beaches of the Gulf.

And as Green points out... "Of course, It is technically possible for the USA and England to meet again in the World Cup knock-out rounds. Now that is a PR person’s dream... or nightmare."

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