PR Resource

The world is paying attention to the 12 boys and their coach caught three miles inside a Thai cave. If anything goes wrong while divers extract them, it will be international news. This is a time when one doesn’t want to make even a single misstep. Not only would it harm someone, but it would paint the rescue operation as incompetent. Thai rescuers are proceeding cautiously, but they don’t have much time. Monsoon rains are coming and the cave complex already is flooded. As much as they pump, they can’t dry it out. Left out of the conversation at the moment is the foolhardy venture into the cave in the first place. Signs warned against it, but the soccer team and their coach went in anyway. There will be time for that once everyone is home safe, but now the reputations of Thai, British and American military divers hang in the balance. Can they bring them out and how fast? They are in a searing spotlight.

Artificial intelligence is getting closer to taking on and beating humans even in highly complex and unstructured games. DeepMind announced that its AI agents exceed human level gameplay in Quake III. This is an ever-changing 3D environment in which one captures the flag. The scientists who prepped the play had their AI program compete each time in a new configuration as it learned. Hence, it could not solve the problem in one space alone, but had to learn how to play in all of them. After about 200,000 training games, it passed the strong human level of play. Along with AI’s success at Go and Chess, it is one more leap in computers’ abilities to transcend humans. Some are terrified that computers will take over some day. Others say it is highly unlikely. While I’m in the latter camp, the power of AI is becoming a PR problem for developers and companies using it. They need to communicate its limitations and not just its abilities. Otherwise, it could well become a political issue in which AI is regulated.

Dairy farmers can’t sell their milk at a profit. Many have taken to dumping it. Cows don’t know that so they keep producing. Here is a program that pays farmers for excess milk and then turns it into cheese and yogurt for the poor. It’s smart PR. Product that would otherwise go to waste is being put to good use. It is not a new idea. The government had a surplus program that stored tons of cheese. The difference here is that private charities are tackling the problem and getting good results. There should be more of this in the US. Food dumping is almost a crime when hundreds of millions around the world go hungry. The richest country in the world can and should do better.

Mexico’s new president is a leftist who has swept out the ruling party. He won, by all accounts, because Mexican citizens are tired of violence, poverty and corruption in the country. They want a new start and a clean slate. There is no guarantee Andrés Manuel López Obrador can bring about the necessary change to make the country better again. But citizens want him to try. It is a public expression of will. Obrador had better heed it during his years in office. The fear is he will take the country into the same direction as Venezuela where strongman politics rule and the country is riven by inflation. Obrador has a long list of things to fix but not the money to do it. He will have to prioritize his work and conduct careful public relations to keep citizens from revolting again. It is a difficult position to be in.

Puerto Rico has introduced a bill in Congress to become a US state. One wonders if this is a dream or a real possibility. Puerto Rico has terrible PR and the island is a ruin since the hurricane savaged it in 2017. Should it become a state rather than a possession, it will quickly hold its hand out for rebuilding funds, something Congress might not want to give. There is good reason for statehood, however. Its citizens are US citizens although they cannot vote in presidential elections. There has long been migration to and from the island to the US mainland. The island has been a US territory since 1898, and has tried before to muster votes for statehood. In its present condition, it might be time for a 51st state to be created. There is a long way to go, however. One shouldn’t expect Congress to pass a resolution quickly, especially with its Nativist philosophy at the fore. The possession has a great deal of work to do in lobbying and PR before it can advance.

The Supreme Court’s decision yesterday to strike down mandatory payments to public employee unions was a blow to the unions, which depend on a consistent flow of money to survive. The leaders must now persuade public servants to join their ranks and fight for better wages and benefits. It is a time for PR — what your union is doing for you. The campaign must be unrelenting because new employees enter the ranks constantly while older ones retire. The unions must also remind their ranks daily of the value of staying together and dealing with government. It is not going to be an easy task, but the unions’ future depends on it.

The Comcast Disney fight over Fox assets might get more bitter as days pass. Comcast is determined to have Fox for its content and networks.  Fox doesn’t want Comcast, however, because it is concerned a merger will be disallowed by the government. Disney and Comcast are engaged in a multi-billions bidding war  Comcast is looking for new funding. Disney has upped the ante. Lost in all this is the fate of Fox employees. They are helpless bystanders to the wrestling of giants. They know in the end someone will own them and their business lives will change. Meanwhile, there is little PR and employee relations can do to ameliorate fears and rumors. Hallway gossip is speculation while everyone waits for Comcast’s next move, if there is going to be one. It is not a good working environment, but it is a reality. There are limits to communications and transparency and this is one of them.

This is a reason why accuracy is of utmost necessity in the media and in PR. The picture of the crying toddler as her mother was detained turns out not to be what it was thought to be. The little girl stayed with her mother and was not ripped away as everyone thought. With heightened attention to border issues, it gave a perfect opening for critics to claim the media was merchandising “fake news.” The mistake diverted attention from the fact that more than 1700 minors were being held away from their parents. PR practitioners know — or should know — not to make unforced errors like this. The media can correct the record and wipe egg off its face. PR often cannot without losing the trust of reporters and journalists they deal with. There is no substitute or getting it right the first time.

Sometimes an organization is boxed in and cannot speak when it should. This is especially true of personnel matters. Consider the case of an African-American, female astronaut who was slated to spend a lengthy period of time on the space station. She trained and was ready to go when NASA cancelled her mission without explanation. Months later, she still doesn’t know why she was barred from the space station and NASA isn’t talking. It doesn’t make NASA look good, but there might not be anything for the agency to say that wouldn’t cause controversy.  Fortunately for NASA, the astronaut, Jeanette Epps, is not making an issue out of the denial although her brother is. In NASA’s defense, other African-Americans have visited the space station and completed missions there. Epps was supposed to take on a long-term role, the first for an African-American woman. So, she now is in limbo working on earth-bound missions and she doesn’t know when or if she will make it into space.  Meanwhile, NASA is silent and letting the situation fester.

IBM is a master of the publicity stunt to demonstrate capabilities of its hardware and software. Here is the latest effort. Apparently, the machine held its own against debate champions in an argument over “whether space exploration should be subsidized, and whether we should increase the use of telemedicine.” The stunt was designed to gain maximum awareness for IBM’s work in artificial intelligence, and it is similar to Watson and its win at Jeopardy. The company has set lofty goals for its machines. It wants to achieve the ability for humans to converse with the software over matters about which there is no clarity. In other words, the machine can infer arguments based on incomplete data. That will be extraordinary progress should IBM reach it. The publicity stunt for such a feat should be amazing.