Should BP be communicate, or be silent? Or, is $5 million a week a small amount to reassure the American public of BP’s intent to stay to course and do the right thing? Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Florida, claims that BP has spent more on “polishing the corporate image” than on helping the impacted states to recover from the disaster.

Recently, I received a piece of mail with an urgent message on the front of the envelope: “Janice, why haven’t we heard from you?” As I read the return address, I was perplexed, and then angry. “Well”, I thought, “Perhaps because I am not yet a doddering, retired, senior citizen”…and promptly tossed the envelope in the recycle bin.

I don’t think that there’s anyone (my age) who hasn’t at some point in their career dragged out the conversation starter about how the modern branding industry grew out of the Old West practice of branding cattle with a hot iron bearing a distinctive mark. Everyone kind of got it, and everyone felt better about this honest, traditional American work we were all keeping alive.