In Defense of Public Relations

BP Cares Shirts for Charity

The BP oil spill disaster is the worst in the history of the planet. This made me wonder what BP PR executives are doing because they have been incompetent in communicating what’s going on. They’ve been outright withholding information in some instances and lying to the public about their efforts. Their thumbs are simply up plugging a different hole, it seems.

So I imagined myself as a fly on the wall at BP’s crisis communications meetings (if they’re even having them).  Here’s my fly on the wall take on the way BP’s PR wants to spin this oil disaster (as tweeted):

1. At least when you swim in the beach, you no longer have to oil yourself.

2. No need to use oil when frying fish.

3. Oil spill aside, what we’ve done here is accelerate by decades for planet to go green.

4. When we came up with “Top Kill,” what we meant was top execs not hole.

5. The success of “top kill” is a buzzkill on PR. We’re getting so much publicity right now.

6. Let’s hold an outdoor showing of Armageddon for the fishermen.

7. Finally, we’ve proven that oil & water don’t mix.

8.  Unlike toyota, we’re only killing fish, wildlife & jobs.

9.  Let’s issue a press release that we broke the world record on oil spill disasters.

10. Give us time. We’ll invent a car that runs on ocean-oil water.

I could go on and on here making fun of BP’s disastrous PR response, but it’s time to hear from you PR folks on your Fly On The Wall take on BP’s PR response.

Have a safe Memorial Day weekend.

In an episode of Mad Men last season, a former client comes to Sterling Cooper because its dog food product made with horse meat became public. It became a public relations nightmare for the company. Even though all dog food products including those made by its competitors was made with horse meat, it no longer mattered. The public had formed its opinion and it wouldn’t be swayed.  Don Draper and Roger Sterling put it bluntly to the client that the name was done. It’s been poisoned.

That was fiction. Toyota’s crisis is all too real. Is the Toyota name done? After decades of developing a carefully crafted message that Toyota vehicles were safe and superior to American cars, this recall can destroy all that.

Suzy Welch put it best in a tweet below:

Do you think the Toyota name is poisoned like the fictional company in Mad Men? Share what you think.

My oh my. I have years of experience launching consumer technology products, but what David Pogue accused Barnes & Noble PR and marketing teams regarding the true weight of the Nook e-reader clearly shows why many PR and marketing folks are loathe by the press.

From experience, I base all the information I write on press releases and pitches that I feed reporters from the spec sheets provided by my client. As PR pros, we have the challenging task of finding the unique selling proposition of every new model or version of product that comes out. I never ask my client whether the spec sheet has accurate information or not. And we shouldn’t! So I don’t blame the Barnes & Noble PR team for not knowing the accurate weight until David Pogue called them on it because just like Pogue, these PR folks are referencing a spec sheet from a client that we accept at face value.

What irks me (and hopefully other PR pros like me that have an ounce of integrity left ) is the PR team’s reaction for being called out about the error whether it was intentional or not.  I absolutely agree with Pogue that the reply from the Barnes & Noble’s spokesperson was a complete attempt to spin the issue in their favor. The statement provided looked to me as a canned response from a crisis communications playbook that was created in the early 90′s.  When will PR pros learn that those days are gone? Stop the spinning and be truthful about your error? When making a mistake, apologize and make things right.  This is the age of social media and what you say and do will live online forever.

Another lesson that PR pros must remember and never overlook here is that reporters (and in this case, their daughters) have inquisitive minds.

Trust me, the truth shall set you back, but it will also set you free.