I want to thank you for your crisis tips in [Bruce Hetrick’s June 28 column]. You not only provided thoughtful commentary, you helped me win an argument with the hubby.

I too felt BP’s CEO must have really been off his rocker when he decided to go to a yachting event and wondered who was advising him on his PR strategy. My husband couldn’t see all the fuss. (“What’s he supposed to do? He can’t fix it himself, so what’s the big deal?”)

I just shook my head. Ah, my literally minded husband. It’s not always what’s real, but it is always what’s perceived. I have to wonder, though, if BP has some senior marketing or PR exec just begging [CEO Tony] Hayward to take their advice and do much of what you suggested in managing his profile and company’s image?

I guess we will never know now, though, because now he’ll always be remembered as the CEO “who went yachting while his company destroyed the Gulf Coast.” (Scary how a title can stay with you like that, isn’t it?)

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Crystal Grave