On 16 June 2010 , Svanberg met with US President Barack Obama to discuss BP 's responsibility for the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill . He caused a PR uproar by afterwards expressing BP 's concern for the common people along the Gulf Coast of the United States whose livelihood is threatened by the oil spill by saying , " We care about the small people " , drawing upon a Swedish phrase , '' den lilla människan '' . The correct translation of the Swedish phrase would have been " the common person " . Svanberg subsequently apologized for the term and attributed his unfortunate choice of words to a " slip in translation "
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Carl-Henric Svanberg