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ChineseMaking Gasoline Cool Again: Helios House
[tags]sustainable, gas station, helios house, bp[/tags]
This is not a public relations stunt says BP’s public relations staff.
Sustainable is the buzz word of the 2k’s. Anything worth anything is sustainable, and everything else is a gas-guzzling SUV. So how is a gas company supposed to take advantage of this hot marketing buzz word when what they do is offer the gas for the SUV’s to guzzle?
Enter the Helios House from BP.
This new “green” (another buzz word for the 2k’s) gas station in SUV dense Beverly Hills (on the corner of Olympic and Robertson) aims to bring the seemingly diametrically opposed worlds of the gas-guzzling SUV and sustainability together under one really cool futuristic roof made of triangles. In fact, according to this craiglist job posting for the Helios House, it’s not even really a gas station but a “green information station”, whatever that means. Apparently team members will educate customers on how to take “small steps” to reduce their environmental impact. By small steps we can assume they mean really effective things like using fluorescent light bulbs and not buying refrigerators with TV’s on them, not silly things like going car-free. It seems the gasoline industry is following in the footsteps of the tobacco industry and fast food industry and indulging in what can only be called Corporate Oxymoron™ (aka when a company sells a product while at the exact same time telling the world how bad that product is). The sad thing is, this approach is almost guaranteed to work, especially in this city where people are always trying to prove they care as long they can retain their cushy lifestyle. Image is everything, something the BP marketers know all too well, and sustainability is the image of the moment so they might as well embrace it, absurd as it may seem.
Related Links:
- CurbedLA: Gas Gossip Part 1: The Lowdown on Helio
- MetroBlogging LA: Is oil giant BP launching eco-friendly gas-stations in LA?
- LA Times: Paradox at the Pump
- Green LA Girl: Helios House = bp, aka British Petroleum
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oh man… so great you posted this today because this morning i past this while riding the 328 and all i could think was… oh damn. oh damn damn damn. bp done figured it out and must have paid frank gehry’s boyfriend to design it cuz its well frankie stylez. over indulgent azz. today must have been some special opening or breaking ground day too cuz when i was riding past it there were people in suits and heels and colored carpets. even sternos heating up some satay. Jesus.
As if it wasn’t hard enough to get the rich and uppity to switch to
public transit, metro has to compete with oscar style gas stations!?
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