PR Resource

It is harder now for a reporter to get away with a biased interview.  Consider this.  Bloomberg’s political editor, Mark Halperin, went too far in trying to test presidential candidate, Ted Cruz, on his Hispanic background.  The internet erupted in outrage over the questions Halperin was asking.  Halperin, for his part, is left with a black eye as a reporter with a twisted “liberal” bent.  Many felt that Cruz would not have undergone a grilling had he been a Democrat.  That remains to be seen.  But, it is true that Halperin’s questions were demeaning.  From a PR perspective, Cruz came out of the interview rather well.  He wasn’t defensive.  He gamely answered most of the questions.  Halperin later apologized for conducting the interview in the way he did.  Perhaps this episode will insulate Cruz in the future when others want to question his heritage.  If so, a negative will have become a positive.

This is wise advice on the use of e-mail.  I’ve taught business school students for several years using the same principles.  The problem is that many never learn, and they create problems for themselves.  E-mail works on the KISS principle — Keep it simple, stupid.  Messages should be complete but short and sent just to those people for whom it is intended.  Long message strings should be cut back, or if they are necessary, summarized.  One point I drummed into my students.  E-mail is never private, whether or not one puts a warning at the end of a message.  I’ve always taught that one should write so anyone can read the missive without repercussion.  It is amazing how many people forget that even now and get themselves into trouble.  E-mail needn’t be bland.  One can express oneself forcefully but it should be done carefully with the intended audience firmly in mind as well as the secondary audience that might see it.

A total of 187 Asian scholars are calling on Japan to admit its wartime atrocities against neighbors and allied countries.  Their PR effort, done by open letter to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has not yet succeeded.  Abe is resistant to apologizing for crimes such as putting Korean women into prostitution to serve its soldiers.  Nations, such as China, which suffered terribly under Japanese control are not satisfied with a general acknowledgement that Japan was in the wrong.  It is understandable that Abe, who is struggling to reignite Japan’s growth and make it an important force counter-balancing China, does not want to dredge up the past.  Yet, the past has bearing on the present, even though it was 70 years ago. For Japan to white-wash its past is a symptom of a culture that has yet to understand and deal with the actions of its military during World War II.  As Japan slowly re-arms, it needs the lessons of the past to help it better handle the future.

There is nothing one can do in PR or marketing to save a business that the public no longer needs.  Consider, for example, the one-hour photo processing industry.  There are just 190 stores left in the US, and one wonders how they hang on.  Business is Darwinian.  With the demise of film, so too came the demise of film development.  As the article notes, the same holds true for video stores and news stands.  Chances are that most, if not all, video stores will be gone in the next five years and one-hour photo processing even before that.  It is a cliche in business to talk about buggy whip makers that did not survive the rise of the auto.  We have our own buggy whip businesses with the advent of digital photography and streaming video.

A first step in political campaigning today is to secure your web site names.  That is why this mistake by a former high-tech CEO is a howler. It comes under, “What was Carly thinking?”  She is running for President on her business experience, but she failed in a basic requirement.  That opens her to mockery from the outset of her hunt for the White House.  A political campaign demands attention to thousands of details, any one of which can sink the candidate.  Carly is starting off well behind and her web page error isn’t going to help her catch up.

When should a reporter become part of a story?  Some say never. That is why this journalist is causing angst among purists.  Sanjay Gupta is a neurosurgeon and reporter for CNN.  He has a habit in crises of pitching in and helping the wounded, especially when there are no other qualified medical staff available.  From a medical perspective, it is just common sense that he do so.  From a news standpoint, he becomes part of the story that might overshadow the news of suffering and tragedy.  Aside from the obvious question of why he is a TV reporter in the first place, Sanjay Gupta has a duty to provide care in the wake of disaster.  That trumps journalistic ethics, but at the same time, critics point out that his relief work should not be the story.  They suggest a solution:  Provide care but don’t report on it.  That is possible, of course, but CNN might object that Gupta is not telling the whole story.  There is no easy answer.  CNN wants his expertise and is willing to accept and promote his medical work.  Editors grind their teeth in frustration over intrusion of a reporter into the news.

Watch this video and think of the publicity value of having a hololens and augmented reality in publicity events.  For example, in a new car introduction, one can isolate sections of the vehicle, such as the drivetrain and project them before an audience in a way that they can walk around and examine the image.  In a drug announcement, one can show each section of the body that the pharmaceutical affects.   An electronics presentation can show the innards of the device and its packaging.  The hololens is still in Microsoft’s laboratory, but the demonstration shows that it is approaching practical use.  If and when it is released, publicists and marketers will have a powerful new tool for communications.

Twitter’s numbers came in well below expectations yesterday and the stock took a beating.  The way it happened is embarrassing to the company and CEO.  Apparently, its investor relations vendor posted the earnings release too early.  A spider crawling web pages discovered it and posted the results on… Twitter.  Wall Street took notice and the run from the stock was on.  More embarrassing was the earnings miss after promises and forecasts from the CEO.  Analysts are now suggesting that the CEO has compromised his leadership and should depart.  Others are questioning the long-term viability of the company.  That is about as bad as it can get.  One more quarter of poor numbers and the CEO can pack his bags.  PR gaffes can be fatal.

The Roman Catholic pope is holding a climate change meeting to call attention to the issue.  The PR value from the event will be international since for many, the pope’s actions carry moral weight.  Adding to this meeting, he will issue a formal encyclical discussing stewardship of the earth, and he is making sure that the contents of the document are discussed down to the local level and from pulpits in churches.  This will carry the weight of authority for Catholics, some of whom do not believe in or are conflicted by climate change.  The communications tactics are basic but effective.  Hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, will hear his message then it is up to them to accept or reject it. But, the pope will have done his duty by getting his views before them.

Polls show that Americans aren’t concerned about the decline of unions.  That’s a pity.  Unions should be for the lowest-paid workforces in the country like fast food or farm workers.  These people have basic skills and need economic protection but frequently don’t get it.  Unions for major craftsmen are good but their workers are paid well now and have benefits.  These unions have to some degree outlived their usefulness, especially with the decline in manufacturing and rise in robotics.  The thrust of a union should be to elevate the defenseless and provide protection through organization.  There are millions of unskilled jobs in the US, all of which should be covered by unions.  It would seem that unions need to do a better job of PR.