When my #2 son was running for class president as a 5th grader, I had a brilliant idea for a campaign slogan, or so I thought. The flyer looked like this: If You LikeVote For TeddyAfter all, who didn’t like spaghetti? It had universal appeal — especially to the grade school electorate. -My son didn’t…… Continue reading Barilla Warfare
Category: crisis communications
Power PR Failure
A cursory search of the Long Island Power Authority’s lame Twitter feed (@LIPANews) only begins to tell the story of the monopoly’s massive communications failure during the post-Irene power outage affecting more than a half million of its customers, a third of whom remain powerless six days later. And this is not the first time.…… Continue reading Power PR Failure
Yuletide Crisis Containment
Late yesterday, a buddy in the PR biz who’s worked with many accounting firms over his career drew my attention to the Wall Street Journal story on the civil suit against Ernst & Young, Lehman Bros’ auditor.The Journal piece posted on the site late yesterday afternoon, but the news leaked into the public domain at…… Continue reading Yuletide Crisis Containment
Oscar’s New “Thank You Cam”
Seasoned crisis managers have an innate ability to predict probable outcomes of various gnarly situations. In “crisis preparedness” exercises, they attempt to anticipate all the “what ifs?” and then simulate communications plans to address each possible scenario.It’s a fair bet that many crisis counselors knew immediately how the Toyota recall might snowball into its current…… Continue reading Oscar’s New “Thank You Cam”
Lloyd & Vince: What’s Changed?
Two pieces broke over the weekend that make me wonder if the modern practice of public relations may finally be getting its just due. Or maybe the PR biz hasn’t changed as much as we’d all like to think.Both stories touch on the old and the new, the yin and the yang, the steadfast and…… Continue reading Lloyd & Vince: What’s Changed?
That Swine!
Some years ago, we were called on by the Mexican Ministry of Tourism to help put in proper perspective the damage caused by the massive earthquake that hit that country. As you might imagine, tourism is big business in Mexico, making up 9.4 % of its GNP – mostly from American visitors.To preserve this vital…… Continue reading That Swine!
No Comment
Writing for Forbes.com’s Entreprenueur section, Maureen Farrell offers up a “crash course in public relations” or more aptly, crisis communications.She starts off with Heparin, then goes on to quote a selection of industry notables — Howard J. Rubenstein, the savvy Bill Keegan of Edelman, and a Richard Levick who wrote a book in which he…… Continue reading No Comment
The Buzz on Jessica
At first blush, it appeared that The New York Times was poised to pull an Alessandra Stanley/Katie Couric trashing of the former Jessica Sklar (aka Mrs. Jerry Seinfeld).Today’s piece opened with a list of allegations that included plagiarism, a soleful bribe of Oprah, and entrapment that resulted in Ms. Sklar landing TV’s most successful funny…… Continue reading The Buzz on Jessica
Notable & Quotable
“This entire experience has opened my eyes up to a tragic world of injustice,” he said. “If police officers and a district attorney can systematically railroad us with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, I can’t imagine what they would do to people [who] do not have the resources to defend themselves.” — Former Duke lacrosse player…… Continue reading Notable & Quotable
Safe Landing
There are some unwritten, but useful rules for new business presentations. One favorite of mine is to avoid “piling on,” e.g., when every agency person in the room feels compelled to offer, in succession, his or her answer to the client-prospect’s question or concern. The net effect: little time for questions to the client from…… Continue reading Safe Landing