Nov
30
Anthony McClellan has an interesting piece on how AWB fluffed an early opp at making amends, implicating lawyers and exec pride. Anthony’s piece flags a couple of key points: a) PR in Oz just isnt held in as high regard as legal advice, tho as the people are increasingly judged in the (citizen media) court of public opinion, the message might eventually get thru. As a Scottish football coach once remarked to a lawyer-turned-CEO who was trying to influence onfield selection; “I’ve watched a couple of episodes of Ironside, but I wouldn’t think I could represent someone in court”, and b) Sandman’s ‘very sorry’ advice would have probably seemed insincere and incongruous if we’re to believe the portrayal of AWB’s corporate culture; like those ’sorry’s’ when sports stars read the pre-prepared contrition after off-field incidents.
(Source The Australian)
Nov
30
Corp Affairs Found Guilty
Filed Under Business | Leave a Comment
Trevor Cook drew this one to my attention - carbon copy case of a case I profiled in ‘Talespin’ where the PR consultant (a former financial journo and porn star)was found guilty at the Old Bailey.
Nov
27
Now, the actor is retrospectively accused of anti-Semitism. Tho his PR guru’s defence - he cant be anti-Semitic, he’s Jewish - surely skates on intellectual thin ice, or is evidence that he’s just not a very clever or skilled comedian.
Also brings up an interesting point about modern reputation management; as soon as anyone stuffs up, agenda opportunists or reputation damage voyeurs all want to, as we used to say in Glasgow, ’stick ra boot in’. Are any of us completely ’squeaky clean’?
Nov
23
PR stunt that’s outta this world
Filed Under Public Relations | 1 Comment
What’s so wrong with this win-win sponsorship scenario ?
Nov
23
Kramer’s recovery swings into action with Rubenstein
Filed Under Celebrity, PR Disasters, Public Speaking | Leave a Comment
CNN says the New Yoik PR man is on hand to smooth the waters.
Nov
22
Kramer’s PR solution; call Big Ron?
Filed Under Celebrity, Public Speaking | 3 Comments
What’s a comedy second stringer to do after his rage-aholic, racist outburst-cum-PR disaster? Despite what looked like a genuine (certainly unscripted) mea culpa on Letterman and with the support of Seinfeld (who ambiguously dubbed it ‘a horrible, horrible mistake’), Richards is still gettin’ no love from his stakeholders. Again, the flack(s) have gone to ground.
The solution Cosmo? Call fading English soccer supremo Big Ron Atkinson (who’s not a racist either!!). He has recovered some career ground after using the ‘N’ word towards French soccer star Marcel Desailly, unknowingly broadcasting it on air (see Talespin PR Disasters). Since then, Big Ron’s tentative comeback involves a documentary about racism (regret, responsibility and remedial action all-in-one), a stint as a soccer pundit in Ireland and a TV show called “Excuse My French’. Apparently, tho, Ron missed out on a managerial job with Trinidad & Tobago due to player unease about his ‘attitudes’. Thanks Wiki.
Nov
21
OJ UPDATE - project cancelled
Filed Under Public Relations | 1 Comment
ABC announces that the book and Fox TV ’special’ have been cancelled. Faced with a global PR disaster and stakeholder backlash, Rupert M himself has intervened to quash OJ and his publishers ghoulish attempt at profiteering. Pre-publicity from the publishers promised ‘a bone chilling account of the night of the murders’. Mr M said the project was ‘ill considered’, which to me points at a complete lack of strategic PR input at project planning stage. Perceptive PR scenario planning or crisis forecasting would have predicted the storm. Sheez, a 15yr old media studies schoolie would have picked it, too. Leaves us wondering what passes for PR in some so-called ‘corridors of power!
Nov
20
If I Did It, OJ…
Filed Under Business, Celebrity, PR Disasters | 1 Comment
Well, I probably wouldn’t metaphorically exhume the bodies in attempts to turn a dollar or two from a book on it.
Even battle-bittered Fox stalwart Bill O’Reilly (along with Geraldo) has spoken out against OJ’s tome. TV stations, newspapers and bookstores are being swamped with complaints and Amazon users are tagging the book with terms including ’shameful’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘murderer’. So is any publicity good publicity? While the PR fallout continues, brazen publisher Judith Regan has gone to ground, along with her unavailable for comment publicist. But hey, when the media hounds are-a-baying, isn’t that when the publicist is supposed to be most available? Or does that simply confirm the deficiency of the one-way comms ‘press agentry’ model of PR?
(Thanks to ‘no capital blogspot’, plus William Booth and Lisa de Moraes of Washt’n Post)