The New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) has pulled a print advertisement from a tourism campaign amid criticism of its anti-British tone.
Referring to the devastating oil spill affecting the Gulf Coast, the advertisement stated, “This isn’t the first time New Orleans has survived the British.”
The words appeared across a picture of a historic statue of Andrew Jackson — evoking the War of 1812, in which then-General Andrew Jackson repelled invading British forces from the city in the 1814 Battle of New Orleans.
BP, which operated the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in the Gulf, was known as British Petroleum before 2000.
When he announced the advertising campaign on June 8, CVB President and Chief Executive Stephen Perry said that the spill posed a serious threat to tourism in the city.
“We’re a momentum-driven business, and that’s why this oil disaster could not have come at a worse time,” Perry said.
According to the CVB, the tourism industry in New Orleans generates $5 billion a year and employs more than 70,000 people.
Ironically, the $5 million dollars that the bureau used to launch the advertising campaign came from the $15 million BP gave to Louisiana to help the state promote tourism after the beginning of the spill.
In a statement released on Thursday, Perry insisted that the campaign was not intended to stoke anti-British sentiment.
“We believe that the ad is first and foremost about New Orleans — its survival, its resilience and its unique character,” the statement reads. “It’s clearly NOT about the British. We didn’t set out to offend the people of the U.K. who we know are being impacted financially by the oil spill, and we deeply regret any ill feelings the ad might have caused.”
Perry added that the CVB had pulled the advertisement and “will continue the campaign with ads that concentrate more simply on the fun and unique spirit of New Orleans.”
But the advertisement is not the first apparent instance of BP-fueled British backlash. In early May, critics accused former Alaska governor Sarah Palin of stoking negative sentiment when she warned against putting faith in foreign companies, telling Gulf residents, “Don’t naively trust – verify.“
President Obama has also used language that some — including London Mayor Boris Johnson and former Member of Parliament Lord Norman Tebbit — have construed as anti-British.
Speaking to the BBC, U.S. ambassador Louis Susman dismissed allegations that President Obama’s comments have been anti-British.
The president “would probably have said the same thing if it had been an American company,” Susman said. “So, while it might seem a bit undiplomatic in terms of the words, trust me: it had nothing to do with the fact that it was British of American. It was a fact that it’s a problem.”
