Jackson Free Press

Oil giant BP, responsible for the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is giving money to four coastal states whose tourism industry may be affected by the mess, reports WLBT. In all, the company is giving away $70 million to Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, of which, the magnolia state is receiving $15 million for advertising designed to alter vacationers' opinions that the coast may not be not fit for vacationing.

"Mississippi intends to use $15 million for damage control against a perception that the beaches and waters of the gulf are soiled," a spokesperson for Gov. Haley Barbour told WLBT. "But is it too little too late?"

The BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 crew members and unleashing an underwater geyser of oil that has been putting somewhere between 210,000 to a million gallons of unrefined crude into the ocean for the past month. Efforts to control or stop the flow have had minimal success to date.