 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".