Diary of a PR Flack

POLITICS, THE LAW AND PR

“We track library books better than we do sexual predators,” so said former Representative Mark Foley (R-Fla).  Guess that was fortunate for him in light of the latest news/gossip from our nation’s capitol where Foley has admitted to inappropriate sexual conduct with teenaged male pages.  Foley immediately resigned his post and checked into a rehab center for alcoholism and emotional difficulties.

Here we have a 6 term member of Congress who Co-Chaired the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus and helped to write the laws that he now stands accused of breaking.  A PR nightmare?  Oh yeah.

For unknown reasons, Foley’s attorney David Roth has stepped into the role as spokesperson and really should be leaving the speaking to the crisis communications professionals, and sticking to the law as evidenced in the following statements;

“Foley was under the influence of alcohol when the notes were written….” 

In a separate statement Roth concedes, “..some notes were written on the House floor during a vote.”

Finally, tying it all together in an AP article, “Roth said Foley was never under the influence of alcohol while conducting business on Capitol Hill.  He could not explain his previous comments that Foley was intoxicated at the time he sent the messages.”

At this point in the scandal, Foley would benefit from hiring a PR spokesperson who will be able to contain this debacle, focus on the recovery process that is taking place and not allow this to spin out of control any more than it already has.  It just goes to show that politics, the law and public relations make for strange bed fellows.

#2 Flack Attack September 29, 2006

"Stick to your message points" and "know your audience" so that those message points are relevant and effective are basic advice that any good PR person will give their speech-giving clients.  So why did the PR department at the Vatican not review the recent controversial speech that the Pope gave on Islam? Join Tracy and Michelle as they discuss how the Pope’s ultimate message of peace got lost in controversy as the media focused on his ill chosen words. 

Brought to you by Aloft Group, Inc.

Don't forget to listen to Aloft Group's Advertising and Marketing podcast at www.podtini.com

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#1 Flack Attack September 25, 2006

If you're a male with dark hair and skin, and could pass for someone of Middle Eastern descent, is it wrong for the airport security to pull you aside?  On this week's Flack Attack, Tracy and Michelle take a look at the PR effects of the ACLU's comments on racial profiling.

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WIRE TAPPING, EVERYBODY’S DOIN’ IT!

So once again, here we sit as spectators while our corporate leaders try to double-talk their way out of another debacle.  Or rather, their crisis communications teams try to feed them fodder to in turn feed to the press, that in turn gets pushed to us, the masses, in the form of excuses, finger pointing and just plain spin.

A lovely example of this comes in the form of an announcement made on September 10, just a few days after the board-room leak investigation, and pretexting accusations broke, on HP’s website that headlines; “HP Board of Directors Releases Statement.”  Great, I thought.  They’re going after this full force, this will not turn into one of those “I did not have sex with that woman,” type situations that we have become oh-so-familiar with.  So, I eagerly click through to read what I believe will be a statement from outgoing Chairwoman Dunn that explains, details, decries and begs forgiveness for their unethical and smarmy behavior and what do I find……”The HP board met for several hours Sunday morning.  It has agreed to reconvene late Monday afternoon.  No further statement will be forthcoming from the company before that time.”  Huh?

Disappointed, yes.  Surprised, nope.  So I decided that I would dig around their site and other outlets to see if at any moment, the corporate responsibility model that is so touted in business schools these days rears its head, at all.   Here are some of the quotes that HP’s Public Relations squad came up with…

“This has nothing to do with the strategy or operations of HP.”  Hmmm.  So, the board of directors, who in essence drive every aspect of operations of a business, who called for this investigation and okayed the tactics, claim that this investigation has nothing to do with operations?  I don’t get it!

“What began as an effort to prevent the leaks of confidential information from HP’s boardroom ended up heading in directions that were never anticipated.  HP is working hard to determine exactly what took place and when, and without all the facts it has been difficult for us to respond to the questions that have been raised.  We plan to get as much clarity as we can to these matters,” said incoming Chair Mark Hurd.  Oh, you should know that since this statement was released on September 12, Hurd has been implicated in the investigation and its tactics.

And just for fun, in a follow up statement, (pre-linking), Hurd says, “I am taking action to ensure that inappropriate investigative techniques will not be employed again.  They have no place in HP.”

And not to be outdone or left out, Chairwoman Dunn’s statement was released as; “These leaks had the potential to affect not only the stock price of HP, but also that of other publicly traded companies.  Unfortunately, the investigation, which was conducted with third parties, included certain inappropriate techniques.  These went beyond what we understood them to be and I apologize that they were employed.”  I liken this statement to upon being insulted or having my feelings hurt, the perpetrator says,  “Well, I’m sorry that you felt that way.”  It’s a great tactic to not accept responsibility and really apologize; it just gives the illusion of apology.  And, come on, I imagine that there is a lot of grey matter on that board, how could they all have been so fooled by the little third party investigator?  And, do we really think that a third party investigator would employ tactics that were not approved by corporate giant HP and risk that pay day?

At some point, it would be so nice to have a chairperson come out amongst the stink of controversy, look at the camera and say, “Boy did we screw up.  But here’s how we’re going to fix it…….”

Changed Forever

Words cannot adequately express what we, as Americans, felt five years ago today.  For several years to come, I’m sure everyone will continue to say “I remember exactly what I was doing on September 11th, 2001…” How can we forget? Not one person in America will ever be the same.

On that clear and sunny Tuesday morning, I remember that I was in an off-site client meeting with a co-worker, and we had NO idea what was unfolding until another co-worker interrupted our meeting to inform us of the tragic events.

From that point on, I honestly felt as if it wasn’t real. We got in our cars after that, and EVERY radio station was devoted to this breaking news.  But this was no War of the Worlds.  It was real.  Since an attack of this magnitude had never occurred before, I naively always thought we’d always be safe from this type of tragedy.  No more.

Everyone was glued to the radio or TV media for what seemed like days on end.  Call it a morbid fascination.  Call it the desire to know the truth.  Regardless, we were all transfixed.  And, we were changed forever.

Fast forward to 2006, five years later. Several philanthropic efforts, charities, and memorials were created as a result of this horrific occurrence. The resolve to make good out of a tragic event has been so powerful, and makes me proud to be an American. 

As a member of the PR profession, this is when I know that our raison d’etre is worthwhile. It is through the efforts of PR professionals that have made these charitable efforts known to the media, so that people across the country will know how they can help, and can continue to help and make a difference for years to come.

To all those who lost their lives on that fateful day, we will never forget, and your sacrifice will not go without purpose. 

Rest in Peace

The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, died yesterday while filming a children’s educational documentary entitled “Ocean’s Deadliest” in Batt Reef, part of one of the world’s Natural Wonder’s, The Great Barrier Reef. He was stabbed through the heart with a Stingray’s serrated barb. He is one of only three documented Stingray fatalities in Australian waters. Ironic? Probably not considering the life that Irwin led.

Irwin’s quirky, enthusiastic personality, heavy Australian accent, catch phrases like “Crikey” and “She’s gorgeous” along with an obvious respect and love for all living creatures, combined to make him a loveable if not questionable character. He was first introduced to the world in 1992 through the Discovery Channel and rapidly became synonymous with Australia. He single-handedly put his retired parents mom and pop animal operation on the map, and with a name change to Australia Zoo, made his business one of the top 5 tourist destinations in the country.

Irwin knew how to motivate, educate, frighten and entertain his audience. Be it jumping on the back of a 500 pound alligator, staring into the face of a king Cobra, or man-handling a tarantula, he didn’t look at these experiences as death defying, but as life enhancing. He is quoted as saying that he never once feared losing his life regardless of the hair-raising situations he found himself in. He embodied nature and vitality in such a refreshing fashion, that we all could take a small lesson on not letting fear stand in the way of our accomplishments and enthusiastically celebrating our passions.

One critic called Irwin a “reckless attention-seeker.” But, I don’t think that was the case. It seems to me that even without half the world watching, Irwin would have still been doing what he loved to do, working with and documenting animals. His was simply the case of an intense person being exposed to the masses by a television executive, producer, marketing VP, and the audiences who loved it and wanted more.

Having perused over a dozen articles written about Irwin’s death, it completely struck me that each one included the one or two PR guffaws he participated in. The time he held his one-month-old baby boy, Bob in one arm while feeding an un-tethered alligator with his free hand and the time his boat came too close to a Hump-back Whale. Neither event led to the harm of either human or animal they just seemed like opportunities for the press to point out Irwin’s lapse in judgment. I guess I feel that when someone like Steve Irwin dies, the insignificant miss-steps that we’re all guilty of should be overlooked, so that his accomplishments are not.

A True Team Effort

I heard an interesting piece on NPR the other day. It was about reoccurring things, things that keep coming back into ones life, people, pets, macaroni necklaces from grade school. Good, bad and indifferent. The premise of the story was that there are some things that you just can't get away from. It’s chi, karma, boomerang effect. Get used to it.

I started thinking about how this philosophy can be applied to professional sports and the strategic efforts the public relations teams need to implement on behalf of those teams. Being from Boston I have the luxury of picking from some of the most notable and championship laden franchises in their respective fields as points of reference.

Who can forget the kung-fu grip that Larry Bird and the fabulous 5 had on the NBA in the 1980’s, when the Celtics were a force of nature that demolished any opponent that dared cross its path. What about the Boston Bruin’s, Cam Neely, Ray Bourque, Bobby Orr? It was poetry in motion watching those guys on skates. It was like they were born with a blade on their sole, or perhaps “in their soul” is more appropriate. Ah, the New England Patriots. Bill Belechick, Tom Brady, Flutie – local favorite, Bledsoe, Bruschi, I could go on. I get chills thinking about the Pittsburgh game early 2002, first round play-offs when Brady started the game, got injured and Bledsoe came out and cemented the win and the path to the Super Bowl title. Awesome. And, of course, not to be forgotten, our beloved Red Sox.

It is really the Red Sox that got me thinking about this “theory of reoccurring” as it were. Not in a win-loss way, but just in a presence type of way. Every Fall, they go away, sometimes later, sometimes earlier. Every early Spring, they come back. And Red Sox nation is here to embrace, chastise, love, hate, heckle, throw things at the management, the coaches and the team. If they are losing, they get paid too much, if they are winning, they don’t get paid enough.

For their Public Relations team, it is truly a matter of ebb and flow. They will win. They will lose. The most exposed players will say stupid things, do stupid things, get traded, injured or retire. The management will leave a pitcher in too long, take a pitcher out too quickly, make a bad trade, make no trades. The coaches will leave men on bases that they should have waved along, and wave along men that they should have let stay put.

Through it all, the PR team will have to respond to critics, celebrate the hype, quash rumors and essentially be on call 24x7 close to 8 months a year. They must be sure to accentuate the positives in-season, even when there appear to be none – such as now. The thing is, we need the boys of summer to keep coming back into our lives. And, they need their PR teams to stay in theirs!

A meal fit for an... alleged murderer?

All the news online, in the newspapers, and on TV this morning had all the same vibe about the same story. That is, why the heck did the authorities let John Karr, JonBenet Ramsey’s alleged murderer, live it up on the way back from Thailand during a flight to LA, where he will face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault of the 6-year old beauty queen that took place 10 years ago???

Here are some of the online and print headlines I enjoyed: “Karr Dines on Prawns En Route to US”, “Karr Treated Like a Celeb on Flight Home”, and “JonBenet Suspect Treated Like VIP”

Karr traveled in business class, sipped champagne, beer AND chardonnay, ate pate, then a fancy salad preceded the main course of fried king prawn with steamed rice and broccoli, followed by a dessert of Valrhona chocolate cake.

Now, I don’t even know what Valrhona chocolate cake is, but the fact that it has a frou-frou adjective like this implies that it’s one heck of a fancy and unbelievably delicious dessert.  Anything chocolate is good in my book.

This alleged criminal ate better than most of us law-abiding nobodies.  Ahh, but there’s the key word: “nobody.”  Whether or not this loser committed this heinous crime, he knew that the publicity generated from coming forward would make him a “somebody” even if this somebody didn’t commit the crime.

And that, my friends, is the problem with the media these days. It is their responsibility to bring this story to the public, but my problem is with how far they choose to expose the people involved.   This case has gone unsolved for 10 years, and this was just the bait the media wanted to go on full fledge throttle to make this guy a dubious celebrity. 

And as for the supposed bad PR move to treat this loser like a king? As it turns out, it’s most likely a calculated move on the authority’s part. As one article put it: Experts say the lavish treatment could be designed to soften Karr up so that he'll reveal the truth. Denver attorney Larry Pozner calls it a ‘brilliant move.’”

Brilliant?  Maybe.  But I think it would be more brilliant to make absolutely sure that you have the right guy before catapulting him into fame and jeopardizing the credibility of “the system.”  And as for Karr, his creepy smile and arrogant demeanor says it all. 

Use Your Voice

Just under a week ago, a horrific plot to blow up ten-plus commercial airliners over the Atlantic Ocean while en route from England to the U.S. was uncovered and diffused. Roughly 22 people in the U.K. are currently detained and close to 17 are being held in Pakistan. All of the people who are connected with this “alleged” plan have dark complexions, are of Middle Eastern descent, are Muslim, the majority are males and all range in age between 19 and 35.

Ever since September 11, 2001 a lot of us have continued to believe that that day’s devastating events were the works of a small faction of deranged psychopaths. That this was just a radical group of men who were brainwashed by the King of Psychos, Osama Bin Laden, and though we knew that this type of group was out there, I don’t think that anyone who wasn’t a terrorism expert knew of the omnipresence of this hatred and the extent to which its members will go to murder “in the name of Allah.”

It is becoming increasingly clear that this faction is not as small as once believed. That the 1% of all Muslims being extremists is so miss-calculated and that the reality of this situation needs to be handled. They are racial profiling in England and Australia. Why not begin overtly participating in it here? To me, it seems crazy not to. Those who fit the aesthetic profile and are not terrorists should completely understand that these are just the times we live in.

So, this being a PR blog and not a politics and policy blog, I would like to send a message to the Muslim Cleric’s out there who are not terrorists, who are just as horrified as the rest of the world with this behavior, and who are very quickly losing their religion. WHERE ARE YOU?? GET OUT THERE AND SAY SOMETHING!!! Do a full-on media blitz condemning the car bombings, plots, mass murder attempts, hateful messages and threats.

There are so many of us who don’t want to fear blindly based on skin color or headscarves. But frankly, it is becoming next to impossible not to. And the thing to bear in mind is that the fear isn’t what came first, it’s the images of the people who flew two commercial jets into The World Trade Center, one into the ground in Pennsylvania and, one into the Pentagon that came first. It was the images of the celebrations that took place in Middle Eastern countries with thousands of people taking part upon hearing of our tragedy. It’s the images that are streamed onto our computers, printed in our newspapers and on our televisions every night that portray a very specific look when the subject of terrorism comes up.

This is crisis management at its peak. I can’t immediately think of any Muslim religious leader who is standing on his soapbox calling for, demanding, begging for a stop to the violence and blanket hatred and asking for peace. It needs to happen and be infiltrated in the mainstream media. We live in scary times and it is the responsibility of the Clerics, who are respected by the terrorists, to get out here and make their voices heard, send a message and perhaps we can go back to a day where seeing a dark skinned male board a plane won’t make your palms sweat.

Attack of the Flack

In the spirit of new media, this flack has decided that this blog is a little lonely, and needs an audio counterpart.  Stay tuned for our new Podcast, Flack Attack, coming soon.  You can hear our first attempt, er, I mean segment, on Podtini, a podcast brought to you Aloft's very own president, Matt Bowen, and VP/creative director, Don Crane.  In it, we talk about what the heck a Flack is anyway, and how to avoid becoming one.  Flack Attack will become an extention of our online counterpart, so listen in!