Prez's power lunch

He may be taking a fighting stance against Wall Street in speeches, but President Obama is now making nice to big businesses in private.

Obama tried to smooth ruffled corporate feathers at an intimate White House lunch with the heads of six major companies Tuesday, sources told The Post.

The tone of the meal suggested that the president felt he'd taken his attacks too far, said one person familiar with the private meeting.

Obama wanted to make clear to attendees that he was not out to destroy business and asked them to offer advice on the economy and encouraged them to voice problems or issues they might be harboring about the government's approach, sources said.

"Your brand is broken," Shelly Lazarus, chairman of advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide cautioned the president at the lunch, sources reported.

The tough talk from the ad veteran, who advises major corporations like IBM and American Express, was a highlight of the lunch that was described as an attempt to take the sting out of the administration's decidedly hard line against Wall Street.

An Oglivy spokeswoman denied that Lazarus made those comments.

Present at the lunch were Lazarus; Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase; James Hackett, chief of Anadarko Petroleum; Rex Tillerson, head of Exxon Mobil and Chief Executive Edward Rust Jr. of State Farm Insurance.

Sources said the lunch, which lasted roughly an hour and a half, focused on an array of topics, including ways to create new jobs and tamp down unemployment.

Dimon is said to have defended the banking industry, which has become a favorite object of scorn in Washington. The JPMorgan boss noted that financial institutions should not all be painted with the same broad brush and argued that vilifying banks that create hundreds of thousands of jobs could do more harm than good.

The meal, which a source said was "much friendlier toned" but far from a "love fest," came a week after Obama took direct aim at the banks by proposing a set of rules that limit growth and force them out of hedge funds, private equity and proprietary trading.

Also in attendance at the lunch were presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

The White House has said that meals like this one are part of an ongoing dialogue with the business community.

mark.decambre@nypost.com