PR Resource

Hundreds of newspapers this week published editorials on the same day (Thursday) asserting that they are not “the enemy of the people” or “Fake News” as President Trump would have it. While it was a good and noteworthy effort, one would be remiss if he didn’t think the clarion call was self-interested. No one likes to be called out, especially when it is unfair, as is happening now, but rhetoricians emphasize that repeating allegations in one’s defense is not the best approach. “I am not a scoundrel” emphasizes the initial charge. What is better is an appeal to a higher principle — the First Amendment. Trump wraps his insulting words in free speech and the newspapers he is attacking have a right to do the same. If there must be a pitched battle between “Fake News” and the administration, so be it. Trump will not be around forever and the media can and will outlast him. It is safe to say, even at this early time, that Trump will go down as one of the worst presidents, making Harding seem desirable. The news media shouldn’t bother to stoop to his level.

The Italian company responsible for the bridge that collapsed in Genoa has already been blamed for failing its job. However, as any accident investigator can tell you, it is too early to know the causes of the tragedy and whether maintenance was at the heart of the problem. No matter.  The company stands convicted in the eyes of the government and the media. It will take months, if not years, for the business to restore its reputation, and it might never live the accident down. There will be hearings and an investigation but the outcome is preordained. The company might point to the original construction of the span and claim it was faulty, but who is going to listen? It is a life and death scenario for the corporation, and it already knows it will be on the hook for millions if not billions for the failure. Look for the case to be tied up in the courts for the next decade.

What moral authority can a church claim with stories like this? The Roman Catholic hierarchy is in crisis not only in the US but worldwide for failing to control and dismiss priests who abuse children. The hypocrisy screams for justice to be done, for bishops and cardinals to be cashiered, for apologies from the pope himself. The Church has been hit time and again in the last few years with sexual abuse allegations, but the Pennsylvania grand jury report is the the first comprehensive look at what priestly predators have done over 70 years. It’s ugly and hard to believe, especially since bishops passed the abusers from parish to parish rather than dismissing them from the ministry. What can the Church say credibly now about moral issues? It is just like the rest of men, only worse.

Anyone who has worked in the dairy business — and I have — know that it is a brutally hard occupation. Cows produce milk everyday and must be milked everyday in addition to feeding them, mucking manure, cleaning pipes, administering medicine and driving them to and from the barn.  Milk workers often get up at 3 am to start their day seven days a week and don’t get to bed before 8 pm. That is why this is great PR. Ben & Jerry’s “Milk with Dignity”pact is finally recognizing that dairy workers have suffered too long, and it is a start to normalizing their existence. They now work 6-day weeks under the agreement and they get an annual vacation of five days, scarcely enough for anyone else, but a breakthrough for the milk industry. Ben & Jerry’s can do it because it makes a premium product for which it can charge more. Most dairymen don’t have that option. They supply a commodity product and are at the mercy of processors who have been cutting the price for milk to an unsustainable level.  So, kudos to Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company, Unilever, for seeing a chronic problem in the dairy industry and moving to correct it.

PG&E, the giant west coast power utility, is wrapping itself in climate change. Its CEO is saying the company can’t be held to strict liability for fires resulting from its power lines because the climate has become drier and hotter. If the utility were to pay claims from recent fires, which destroyed structures and took lives, it would be on the hook for $75 billion, far more than the balance sheet can handle. One could be cynical about this outlook, but California’s firefighting officials have made the same point. We are entering an era when a company’s messages will have to reconcile a changed world with economic transactions. PG&E is in the vanguard despite denial from the government that climate change is occurring.

One bane of a software developer’s existence is an upgrade. Companies and users don’t do them and the result is there are many versions of an operating system in the marketplace. This is a problem Google faces with Android. It has just released its latest version, called Pie, but Samsung, which just introduced its newest phone, isn’t using it. This is a PR problem for Google  How do you persuade reluctant companies to go along with change?  It costs the companies time and money to shift to a new system and understandably, they are reluctant. The question they have is “What’s in it for them?” Google has to persuade them that it is better for their customers and they risk being left behind as other companies adapt the new software. That isn’t easy, just ask Microsoft when it introduced Windows 10. There was no stampede to it and the company had to wait patiently while customers bought new computers with the upgraded version of Windows installed. Google faces the same delay. It must convince manufacturers of mobile phones that Pie is better and should be adapted immediately.

When a product in development has been over-hyped and at its debut is just OK, there is media disappointment. Such is the case with the “mixed reality device,” Magic Leap One. Reporters were eager to try it on and were not transported by the results. Add to the less-than-stellar reviews the cost of the product — $2300. The reaction is “After all the publicity, this is what we get?” The company would have been far better off if it had worked to dampen expectations rather than let speculation run wild. The product was developed in secrecy so journalists relied on over-hyped rumors. Magic Leap is now faced with mediocre reviews and its first new product that might not go anywhere in the market. It’s a bad position to be in. One hopes they have the cash to develop a second generation that is better. If not, they will go the way of most start-up tech companies. They will cease to exist or they will be bought out.

Few companies have to withstand a crisis that lasts five years, but that is what Seaworld has experienced. Its visitor count collapsed when the company was under siege from activists who wanted Orca shows stopped. Seaworld did end them and the Orca breeding program. But, activists were not mollified and the public stopped coming. It has taken five years to increase the flow of park attendees and the company is just now showing signs of health. The previous CEO was fired and it is up to the present CEO to keep park attendance increasing while cutting expenses and boosting the bottom line. The lesson from all this is never to ignore activists, especially when they have the public’s ear. It is better to co-opt them if at all possible.

This is great PR for a basketball player who could use his millions for living a swank personal lifestyle. He has given students and their parents hope of a better future with all the amenities they need to succeed. Let’s hope the affected families take advantage of everything offered to them and put their children through college. There will be drop-outs along the way, which is unfortunate, but there is a good chance that many of these children will break the poverty cycle that keeps so many down in America. James is leaving northern Ohio for Los Angeles to continue his hall of fame career, but his action shows he has not forgotten his home. Kudos to him.

Liars have a perennial problem — getting tangled in fabrications. They lie then lie again to cover the first lie and so forth. The problem comes when someone documents their words and shows the inconsistencies. Consider this example. President Trump lied about his son’s meeting with the Russians. Then, when caught out, he lied again by dictating a note to explain it while denying knowledge of it. Now, he is saying that yes, there was a promise of dirt on Hillary, but it was entirely legal to do so, which isn’t true either. Eventually, with continuous pressure from investigators and the media, the truth might come out, but at this juncture, Trump is making Nixon look good. There is no percentage in telling a lie, particularly in high-profile events. People are taking notes. The liars hope that no one remembers the first prevarication is futile. That is why PR practitioners should insist on the facts every time, even at the cost of their jobs. The risk to reputation is too great.