Many people are picketing BP gas stations with the intention of hurting the oil companies deep pockets.  Even artists and rock groups are joining the boycott bandwagon.  There’s even a Facebook group that aims to organize a nationwide boycott of the brand – all to voice the public’s discontent with the way BP has managed the disastrous oil leak in the Gulf.  You yourself may have thought of bypassing the station on Old Roswell Rd. on the way to the 400, even though your tank was on “E”.   That’ll show them, right?  Wrong.

Oil is a globally traded comodity and there is just no way to be sure which company is responsible for the gas that goes into your car.  It only becomes BP-branded gas when additives are put in, usually at the filling station.  And if BP runs into a surplus of those ingredients, it’s very easy for them to just sell them off to other stations.

Consumer protests actually have no real effect on BP’s bottom line.  In fact, when people do boycott BP stations, the only people that end up getting hurt are the innocent gas station operators that have nothing to do with the oil spill.  As the New York Times pointed out…

“BP doesn’t actually own any gas stations. It licenses the BP brand out to independent station owners in a franchise model, and collects a relative pittance from the deals. So if you withhold your business from your local BP station, you’re really only hurting the local businessman or chain who owns that particular store. And what they’re being punished for is the mistake of signing up with BP instead of ExxonMobil or Sunoco.”

Sorry folks…the only real way to hurt BP’s pockets are to quit using petroleum based products all together.  And I’m not sure if the majority of the public is ready for that.  What do you think?