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BP is refusing to give the state more money for advertising, and the 25 million dollar advertising grant the company gave Florida in early June runs out this weekend. As Whitney Ray tells us, promoting Florida’s clean beaches may soon fall into the hands of coastal businesses and area chambers of commerce.

Sunday, several ads promoting Florida’s clean beaches will be pulled. Money from BP to let travelers know their oil hasn’t spoiled Florida yet is running dry, and the oil giant isn’t willing to cough up any more cash to spread the message.

Governor Charlie Crist sent a letter to BP asking for 50 million dollars to run ads trough the summer. BP responded with this letter saying “no way.”

In it BP questions the effectiveness of spending money promoting the entire state and encourages area advertising. Crist isn’t giving up.

“We are responding to their letter, trying to force them to do the right thing. Like they say in their commercials, ‘do the right thing.’ Well the right thing would be to give us the opportunity to market our state,” said Crist.

Visit Florida, the state’s tourism agency, is digging into its own pockets to get the ‘Open For Business’ message to travelers. But Visit Florida says it’s a 10 million dollar a month job, and the agency doesn’t have that kind of cash.

“Without support from BP or otherwise we are going to have to get real creative to do that,” Thompson.

While BP is cutting off the cash flow to help promote Florida, the oil giant is cutting no corners in its own efforts to improve its tarnished image; full page newspaper ads, TV commercials, and internet marketing… are costing the company millions.

BP is catching heat for spending money and resources to improve its image, while the environment and coastal businesses are suffering because of its oil leak. Still the company continues to run ads and isn’t disclosing how many millions it’s pumping into its marketing campaign.