Author: Jim Horton

Political campaigns have mastered the craft of cutting losses by spinning off people and organizations that threaten the success of candidates.  Consider this example.  Jeb Bush has not yet formally declared he is going to run for President, and he already is letting people go who could embarrass him.  It’s a smart thing to do.  Campaigns are bloody affairs with the media and the internet examining every detail of a candidate’s personality and people.  They are looking for faults that are symptomatic of how the candidate thinks and what he might do in office.  They are less interested in issues, especially if they are check-box statements designed to appease segments of voters.  It’s the campaign itself that motivates them — who’s winning, who’s receding, who’s navigating the shoals of special interests best.  Despite decades of self-flagellation over focusing on the horse race, the media continue to play the ponies.  Bush knows that as does every serious candidate.  Hence, it is not too soon to cut loose a staffer who could distract the media and voters from the candidate himself.

The war of words between Greece and the rest of Europe has turned into a game of chicken. Each side has mustered its PR tools and is bluffing the other.  Will Greece get rid of the imposed austerity plan?  Will Europe force Greece to stick to Europe’s will?  Will the Euro survive if there is a breakup?  These are huge issues and there is no path forward yet. Greece has the advantage of having its citizens behind its decision. The position taken by the new government is what the people want.  The European Union has the force of money behind its stance.  It has tried to bail out Greece but in return it wants Greece to reform.  Any resolution to the stand-off will be hard won and will require negotiation with give and take on both sides.  Meanwhile, Greeks continue to suffer from joblessness and hard times.  If there is a lesson here, it is that financial solutions might not be practical in the end. Winning the hearts and minds of a populace must come first.  It is clear that didn’t happen in Greece.

A now former employee of HSBC bank stole thousands of files from its computer systems and created a major reputational crisis for the institution.  The files reveal that the bank helped thousands of wealthy people, including crooks, hide money from tax authorities in Swiss accounts.  The employee who took the data considers himself a whistleblower.  The bank calls him a common thief.  No matter.  The situation in which the bank is caught will cost it hundreds of millions in fines, if not billions. There is no out for the institution.  E-mails state openly that bank employees were helping clients squirrel away money and were not particular about where it came from.  Call that the dark side of client service.  One wonders why in this era of transparency that a bank might think it could get away with such behavior.  Apparently, the question never occurred to HSBC’s leadership or they turned a blind eye to what was happening in their ranks.  HSBC will now undergo an excruciating examination by tax authorities from several countries and it might well wish that it had been more vigilant in the first place.  It will take years to rebuild its reputation as an honest bank.

How do you communicate when a major merger has been frozen for a year by regulators?  This is the challenge faced by Comcast in its effort to merge with Time Warner Cable.  Comcast is working closely with regulators and has one of the largest lobbying operations in Washington DC, but it has yet to be able to move the combination forward.  Now with new net neutrality rules being proposed, there is yet another strike against the companies getting together.  Perhaps what is needed here is another grand bargain with the government that guarantees internet speeds to everyone within its market areas.  This would impose a burden on both companies that might not be economic, but there needs to be something that breaks the ice jam.  Otherwise, regulators are adept at studying an issue to death.  They don’t say no or yes but they do ask for more and more information.  Each question begets a study and the study more studies, more financial data, more questions until one or the other side gives up.  It takes character and desire to endure the process and courage to keep chipping at the resistance.   I would have cut my losses and moved on.

By now, you might be aware of a tale that Brian Williams, NBC News anchor, had been telling about his time in Iraq — how he was in a helicopter that was shot down. Turns out it wasn’t true.  He was in a helicopter an hour behind the one hit by ground fire.  The internet is out in force mocking him.  Williams has apologized publicly.  Some say he made the story up to make himself look good.  Others ascribe the falsehood to a bad memory, which Williams does as well.  If it was memory, the lesson here is never to trust it.  Williams must know the old newsroom cliche — “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”  The point is never to rely on what you think you know but on the facts, which might be quite different.  Certainly in Williams case they were.  We know memory is slippery and often deceitful.  Scientists have implanted false memories in test subjects time and again to show that the brain will willingly recall incidents and evidence that never occurred. PR done right relies on accuracy and avoids spin.  This means practitioners should always check facts rather than recalling them.  Getting facts wrong might not be as embarrassing as what happened to Williams, but it does impact the credibility practitioners need in their work.

After a tragic accident caused by your employees, which displaced 1000 people, is it smart to recommend to a government executive that he praise you in a press conference?  This is what happened after a fire burned an apartment complex in Edgewater, NJ.  The public  relations firm sent an advisory e-mail to the county executive suggesting he cite the company for “stepping up” for the homeless individuals.  Predictably, the county leader did not use the talking points and someone leaked the e-mail to the press.  Now the owner of the complex is looking uncaring and dumb.  Should the PR firm have contacted the county executive in the first place?  Yes, but with a list of facts without suggestions for what to say about them.  This wasn’t a time for spin and in any event, no matter what the company had done for the victims, it was hardly enough.  Its employees, unlicensed plumbers, were using a torch to fix a pipe in a complex built largely out of wood.  That was an accident waiting to happen, and the company is going to deal with lawsuits as a result.  There are times and places in which to highlight a company’s good deeds, but this wasn’t one of them.

Hat tip to Karen Horton for finding this.

The dietary supplement industry has long been under attack for the efficacy of its products, but this charge is a blow to reputation, even if proved wrong.  The New York State attorney general ordered Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Target and GNC to stop selling their herbal supplements immediately because they don’t contain the products listed on the label.  It makes the four retailers sound like quack medicine men hawking miracle cures to dull-witted marks.  The argument made to the attorney general is that he tested the products incorrectly, but no matter, the damage is done.  Now the retail giants will have to retest their supplements using standard and accepted techniques and present their results to the state of New York, which might or might not accept them.  Meanwhile, the four retailers face the challenge of removing these products from their shelves in the Empire State, and perhaps, elsewhere, or braving the assault of the law and taking the issue to court.  Either way, there isn’t much one can say until new test results are in.

Behind President Obama’s budget document is a gloomy view of the future and a desire to have the federal government intervene to create jobs.  Behind the Republicans’ opposition is a desire to cut down the size of the federal government and its debt and have the states take on the heavy lifting.  This is a philosophic clash that goes back to the beginning of the country and the role of government.  Like Jeffersonians, Republicans believe in a weak — or weaker — federal government and strong states.  Like Hamiltonians, Democrats strive for a strong central government and weaker states.  The clash will never be settled, but it shows time and again in budget proposals.  Because Obama lost both houses of Congress, his budget ideas are DOA.  He might get some of what he is asking, but it will be little.

How as a communicator should one deal with this clash?  There is no good way to hearken back to the thinking of the country’s founders because too much has happened since.  One can only appeal to the interests of the public at the moment, which is what Obama is doing.  He has decided on class warfare to make his case — tax the rich to feed the middle class.  That appeals to average householders and is anathema to the wealthy.  It is also unlikely to work since high income individuals already supply most of the tax dollars in the federal government budget anyway.  So the budget document will remain a vision of what the country could be but not a reality.

Timing is essential to winning.  Just ask the Seattle Seahawks who threw an interception in the last minute of the Super Bowl.  Hilary Clinton is now in a debate over timing.  The presumed front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, she has continued to delay the launch of her campaign. If she starts too early, she risks being the focus of Republican attacks.  If she starts too late, she leaves the door open for a challenger.  Her staff is arguing and the Democratic party is kibitzing.  Hilary herself must be receiving plenty of on-the-record and off-the-record advice from friends and party members.  There is no good way to know when is best to start.  It is a judgment call as many communications campaigns are.  One can fault or praise the candidate only in hindsight.  Timing is an example of why PR and communications are as much art as craft.

The web site company, GoDaddy, is trying to turn around its sexist image.  For years the company used scantily clad women in suggestive ads to heighten awareness of its offerings.  It has moved away from that toward more family friendly advertising.  (However, it might not be friendly enough.  A recent ad that it withdrew for the Super Bowl dealt with a lost puppy that finds its way back home only to be shipped out to a new owner.)  Fortunately, the CEO understands that it is going to take years to live down its past and he is prepared to spend the time and money doing it.  It won’t take much for the company to slip up and recapture the past in ways that it doesn’t want.  That means it will need to be hyper-vigilant about its public persona for a long time.  The “lost puppy” ad is an example of the kind of image that it doesn’t want — brash and in-your-face.  It is hard to find a balance that doesn’t descend to pablum and generates awareness.  Its PR program should be interesting.