We all make mistaks

I remember once, as a kid, seeing a very brief news item about a traffic sign, painted on the road, warning drivers they were entering a "school zone."  School, was spelled "sckool."  Funny enough to make the six o'clock news.

But, could such a thing possibly happen on a national level, causing embarrassment, say, to one of the nation's institutions of higher learning?

It did.  The poor folks at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, allowed their PR team to put in motion a campaign around the notion of "D+."  The "plus" is to signify an advantage of some sort.

The campaign was "designed to catch the attention of high school students" who may find it difficult to differentiate among the countless come-ons they receive from prospective colleges.

I bet it's succeeding.

I have to admit, from a high school perspective, it's kind of funny.  In an email defending the campaign, survey results are carefully drawn out to show that target audiences found the campaign interesting.

A few thoughts:

1.  I think the concept would work much better if it was tongue-in-cheek, as in: "Now that we have your attention, here's why Drake is a good school for you."

2.  The problem is in taking it seriously.  Only compounding the challenge is that school officials now need to explain the campaign to faculty and staff.

3.  If the campaign was designed to simply increase awareness and cause people to talk about Drake, they've already succeeded.

If you take a look at the firm that created the campaign, you see right away this doesn't appear to be a fly-by-night or a bunch of idiots who don't know what they're doing.  Part of the execution seems a bit off, but other than that, if Drake is smart, the school can make lots of hay out of this.

And, after all, that's what this is about.

Bret Stephens is one Smart Fella

So, someone wants to build a mosque in Lower Manhattan.  Offensive?  Yes.  Must we defend someone's right to freedom of religious expression?  Yes. 

But there are limits, especially when past performance should be indicative of future results.

Read the following from Bret Stephens.

This is why Israel will always Lose the PR Battle

You may have read reports of the former Israeli soldier who posted photos of herself sitting next to blindfolded and handcuffed Arab prisoners.  Like the "dancing soldiers" video, popular a couple of months ago, the photos are in bad taste, at the least, destructive at worst.  (I'm not providing links to these images because I do not want to do my part in perpetuating them.)

What's the big deal?  It's simple, really.  A picture, it is said, is worth one thousand words.  And with every juvenile posting propagated by Israeli progeny, the case for Israel's defense becomes increasingly problematic.

As a kid I was taught that I represent all Jews.  When I litter, someone will say, "Look at that Jewish kid littering," and NOT, "Look at Alan littering."  It's exactly the same thing with young Israelis.  They have an obligation to think ahead 10 steps to the possible reputational repercussions of their actions.  Adding insult to stupidity, is that Israeli soldiers - who are as technologically advanced as anyone - think that by posting such material on the Internet, it wouldn't spread like wildfire across the Globe.

So, this is why Israeli will forever be playing catch-up and defense against itself: Israelis across the board need to understand they play a crucial role in their country's - and people's - reputations.  It isn't only an issue to be managed by elected officials and "someone else."  Every single citizen must take responsibility and behave accordingly.

Public relations, as I am fond of saying, is about what you do and NOT what you say.

The Dome

My wife bought me a great present a couple of weeks ago: The Dome, by Stephen King.  He is a master storyteller with a brain that should be studied.

I haven't been able to put the book down, though it weighs in at 6.17 lbs (1,074 pages, soft cover - much like that all-in-one Lord of the Rings tomb my son is working through). As of page 812, the story, in a nutshell, is Lord of the Flies-like.  People get stuck in a New England town and, in a matter of days, all hell breaks loose.  Riots.  Murder.  Suicide.  All good King fare.

But what does this have to do with  my usual topic of pontification?

I wonder, inexplicable/supernatural events notwithstanding, how accurate is King's narrative?  Very, I would venture.  Psychological experiments have shown it again and again.  Here, we have a small town where everyone knows just about everyone.  Yet, at the drop of a hat, teams coalesce and it quickly becomes "us versus them."


It's amazing how innate it is to find someone to blame for a problem rather than focusing on a solution.  We see this all the time when it comes to emergencies and crisis situations.  First response by most people is to say, "It's not my fault!"  Preschoolers to Fortune 500 CEOs do it.

Here's my thought for the day: in a crisis situation, focus on solving the problem, not laying blame.  Your constituents won't necessarily remember who caused the problem (unless perhaps you pour a bazillion gallons of crude oil on them), but they're likely to praise and forever remember who solved it.

The End of Forgetting

This past Sunday, The New York Times Sunday magazine featured an article about the end of forgetting.  In it, Jeffrey Rosen presents a rather scary proposition - one that ought to be intuitive to anyone with any familiarity of online culture: every move you make can be kept online for posterity and come back to haunt you in ways you never imagined. 

Take for example, Stacy Snyder, whom Rosen references.  She had what was deemed as "inappropriate" photos of herself and, as a result, was denied a teaching job.  Why should what she does during non-work time at all affect her professional qualifications?

I can't go into the depth of argument Rosen did - I don't think I'd have anything to add - but I do want to comment on this from a perspective of reputation management.  As anyone who has been at the wrong end of a reputation crisis can attest: one "oh crap" is far more powerful than 10 "attaboys." 

Today, individuals who engage in public displays of everything personal must take upon themselves the same rules of engagement as companies and other organizations interested in reputation management.  To a large extent, what is right and wrong is irrelevant.  We can only deal with what is.

Survival

There's an AP video on Yahoo today about a Holocaust survivor who stars in a video, along with his grandchildren.  Here is the video from YouTube:



If you watch the video until the end, you'll get to the punchline, where the grandfather says he never would have thought that he'd "be here today dancing" with his grandchildren.

I guess not too surprisingly, there are people who aren't happy.

While I don't agree, I understand their point of view.  But, to me, this man isn't just celebrating his survival.  He's celebrating his total and complete victory over millions of people who sought to destroy him and all those who's come after him.


By just living and having children and grandchildren, he celebrates victory every day.

Foot in Mouth Disease

Interesting post by The Wall Street Journal's Jeffrey Zaslow on slips of the tongue.

One of the most important media and communications tips I give to clients is to "know your story."  I picked this up from a former employer who understood the power of having key messages and sticking to them.  One of the most painful things to watch is an interview with someone who isn't clear on what he or she is saying.  "The worst thing you can do in an interview," my employer would say, "is to try out a new message in an interview setting."

So, what is one to do?  Practice!

Here's how I put it to clients:  Remember when you were dating someone you wanted to impress (perhaps your spouse) and you'd stand in front of the mirror and review what you were going to say?  This is the same thing, except I'm your mirror and I'll give you feedback.

So, today's take-aways?

1.  Think about your key messages.
2.  Practice saying your key messages.
3.  No matter what, don't ever "try out" new messaging in an interview situation.

As Zaslow points out: "If only more of us would follow the advice of 1950s-era humorist Sam Levenson. 'It's so simple to be wise,' he once said. 'Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it.'"