PR Resource

President Trump, apparently without telling his advisers, delivered a bombastic warning to North Korea that hinted of nuclear war. He has talked this way before, but now he is in charge, and he should be watching his words more carefully. He doesn’t seem to realize that words are dangerous if they provoke another to action. Certainly North Korea is violating limits set by the rest of the world, but bombast is not a guarantee they will step back. Rather, it serves as a spur to build more rockets and nuclear devices. It also gives the North more excuses to repress its people in the name of security. It is a hopeless dream that the country will liberalize its policies and set its citizens free. The top echelon is living too well for that. Trump’s words implied the destruction of the command chain that controls the country, but that would result in the deaths of tens of thousands of men, women and children. There is no good way to free North Korea from its communist overseers, and bombast is definitely not one of them.

Wells Fargo bank can’t avoid scandals these days. Here is another one. The bank was clearly out of control in its consumer insurance and lending departments and only now is the dysfunction coming to light. How the bank has fallen in reputation. It came out of the 2008 financial meltdown on a high and with operations that seemed to be working well. Since then, little has gone right. Responsibility for the scandals rest with the CEO whether he likes it or not and even though he wasn’t in the chair when the misdeeds occurred. He now has to investigate every department and root out marginal managers and errant employees. It will take years for the bank to hold its head high again, and that’s as it should be. One scandal was enough. Three is well out of bounds.

The mayor of New York wants to impose a tax on the wealthy ($500,000 and up in annual income) in order to pay for subway improvements and to subsidize low-income riders. There are an estimated 32,000 individuals who would fall into this category. Predictably, lower and middle class riders favor such an approach. It isn’t money out of their pockets. The wealthy have yet to be heard from but they have options, including leaving the city. This crude kind of class warfare is part of a liberal approach to legislation. Income redistribution is at the heart of the message. It is dangerous for the mayor to play with this kind of fire. He is up for re-election and he needs the money of the wealthy to pay for campaigning. The mayor is right that the rich should pay more, but they already are. It is a question of balance. How much more should they give? There is no right answer. It is what voters permit ultimately. The mayor is playing to the masses, and he just might win.

North Korea has said the US would “pay dearly” for new sanctions imposed on it by the UN Security Council. In reality there isn’t much the North can do and its threat is largely empty words. Yes, the country could launch hacking attacks against the US, but security personnel are ready now for such interruptions. The North, if it has lost reason, could launch a missile toward US shores, but were it to do so, it would ignite a war it could not win. So too if the North directed force against the South. So, what is left? The North will have to get creative to punish blockaders and restore its trade with China. One shouldn’t put it past the leadership to find a new way to strike back, but it is likely to be petty. The lesson here is that one shouldn’t use threats unless he is prepared to back them up.

Too much has been written already on the rise and swift fall of Anthony Scaramucci. There is one aspect that hasn’t been covered much and is worth a note. That is Mooch’s demand that a communications person or PR firm “go to the mat and lie for him” if necessary. That would make him ineligible to be a client at many PR firms who insist on facts and persuasion. Certainly there are practitioners for whom facts are fiction, and they give the industry a bad name, especially when it finally comes out, as if often does, that they failed to tell the truth. The first rule of PR should be “accuracy, accuracy, accuracy.” One accepts a body of facts and tries to present them favorably for a client. Sometimes this can’t be done, but often there are multiple sides to an issue and there are interpretations that highlight positives. Insisting that a PR firm lie for him compromises the business as much as it focused a negative light on him. When I entered the business decades ago, I was told I didn’t have to lie for anyone. That has remained true in my career. I am thankful that I’ve never had a client that expected me to tell falsehoods.

What happens when one places investment, R&D and manufacturing on the wrong technology? German automakers are about to find out. They are all-in for diesel engines at a time when the rest of the world is looking into electric. They have staked their reputations on diesel and come up short. Now they are facing a catch-up game in Europe and elsewhere as one country after another places the motor in the polluting column. It didn’t have to be this way. German car builders cheated to make the diesel meet air pollution standards, and they were caught. Now, they have to further refine the engine’s technology to pass muster or they will have to give it up for good. That is a tough choice, but their place in the market and their sales depend on it.

Two South Carolina utilities have abandoned two nuclear reactors they were working on in the state. The construction project has cost them $8 billion so far, and it was nowhere near completion. Estimates were as high as $25 billion to bring the reactors online, and given the dropping cost of power, it no longer made sense for the utilities to continue. The episode is a blow to the reputation of the nuclear industry, an impact from which it might not recover. Nuclear generation has been on its heels for some time. After a burst of reactor building, construction largely stopped for decades and those projects that were tackled were often problematic. Now the industry can add two more reactor shells to projects around the US that have never been completed. One should ask why any utility would consider splitting atoms given the headaches that result. It is still early to call the nuclear industry dead, but it is on life support.

Airlines with any kind of customer listening know customers are complaining about space. The incredible shrinking seat. But the carriers have done nothing but skinny the chairs some more. It is a failure of PR and the courts are now involved. “Judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday directed the F.A.A. to “adequately address” a petition that raised safety concerns about the increasingly cramped conditions on airplanes.” It didn’t have to be this way. The airlines could have controlled their greed and allowed adequate seat room for all customers, even those in economy, but they continued to press their luck. Now the government is involved, the power has been taken from their hands and there will be regulation. The F.A.A.,which had ducked the issue, is under orders to examine the situation and act. The agency is examining the ruling and determining what it is going to do. Maybe next time passengers have complaints there will be a sympathetic ear.

A company can react to online trolls in a number of ways. They can pretend to ignore them. They can respond in kind. They can threaten to sue. Or, they can laugh them off their critical game. Arby’s, the sandwich chain, took the last course and made a PR success of it.. First, they did their homework and kept an eye on the twitter account until its author was unmasked. Then, they flew an executive to Chicago to meet with the troll at his place of work unannounced. When the troll came out to greet them, he found several Arby’s staffers, a bag full of sandwiches and a black labrador puppy. The message,“Cheer up, buddy. You live in a world with puppies…and sandwiches.” The PR tactic predictably made a splash in the marketing/advertising community, and well it should. Arby’s had fun with the troll and the troll appreciated it. He told his 300,000 followers about it, thereby adding more impact to smart PR. It is a lesson other companies should follow.

The Senate Republicans’ effort to get rid of Obamacare has foundered and sunk. There is no guarantee any kind of compromise will be developed and enacted. The problem was the Republicans had no plan, just the effort to repeal, and the American public was not fooled. Here was a classic case of the need for powerful persuasion. It was missing for nearly all of the push-and-pull over repeal. The Republicans came off as “aginners” who wanted to replace the law simply because it came from Obama’s administration and not because of manifestly clear faults with its regulations. Nearly everyone was against them from doctors through health agencies to common citizens. Yet, the House and Senate persisted. This kind of coup de main might have worked in a company dominated by a CEO who has also cowed the board, but it is much more difficult in the political realm, as it should be. So, now it is on to tax reform where chances of comprehensive change are slim at best. Maybe this time the Republicans will use the tools of persuasion rather than once again attempting to ram through new legislation.