The Yes Men Apologize to British Petroleum

Monday March 10, 2008, 12:22 pm


Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:09:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: Andy Bichlbaum
To: "White, Robert S C"
Subject: Use of a website... infringing copyright on the trademarks of BP p.l.c.

Dear Mr. White, BP p.l.c.,

Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to write to us in regard to
your company's website, BP.com.

First of all, please allow me to say that we do completely understand and
sympathize with the hurt that your company has every right in the world to
feel, and we deeply apologize for occasioning this emotion.

And although we do know that there can be no excuse at all for this slight,
I would beg your indulgence for just one minute, so that I might try to
explain our side of the story, such as it is.

Back in 2006, we began preparing some satires on a number of companies that
we considered to be the world's prime malefactors, in order to help expose
their monstrous crimes in a humorous way. These companies included
ExxonMobil, Halliburton/KBR, and a number of other entities, including your
own.

Sadly, while we did get around to fully realizing some of the spoofs -
including the ones on Exxon and Halliburton - we actually *forgot* about
yours shortly after we began work on it, and it thus remained in the
execrable half-finished state in which, to your horror, you found it last
week. It didn't even have its own URL!

I would like to sincerely apologize to your company on behalf of the Yes
Men. Like morons, we were misled by appearances. Like morons, we thought -
or rather, felt - that the malefaction of those other companies was more...
maleficent than your own.

Yes, we can be real morons sometimes. There is no doubt of that.

But I am here to tell you today that we are making efforts. We now
understand that objectively, BP does every bit as much damage to this planet
as does Exxon, Halliburton, or any other more obviously nefarious company,
regardless of its carefully engineered professions of decency and concern.
And we are ready today to prove our maturity, sincerity, and newfound
intelligence by offering you a fully realized spoof of your own:
http://beyond-petrol.com/. We have likewise deleted the offending
pages you refer to below.

I know that our admissions today may be rubbing salt in your wounds, but I
do hope that this website can in some way make amends. Any relationship,
after all, must start from a place of truth and honesty, not deceit and
subterfuge. This is the honest truth, and so this is where we begin.

Again, please accept our deepest apologies, and our hopes for a better
future.

Yours most faithfully indeed,
The Yes Men