World of Spin

Ain’t singing for MacDonald's...

2005-04-04T07:03:00.000-04:00

Ad Age reports (registration required) MacDonald’s is ready to sign deals with music performers who mention their products in their songs. The cash register will ring every time the song is played on radio.

Neil Young sang it best :

Ain't singin' for Pepsi
Ain't singin' for Coke
I don't sing for nobody
Makes me look like a joke

How to use an embed

2005-04-03T11:18:00.000-04:00

While still used after the start of the ground offensive, Pentagon-packaged news were pushed aside by the changing nature of the war in Iraq. They were replaced mostly by embedded reporters, an innovative technique making correspondents dependant on the military not only for information, but also for their lodging, meals, transportation and security.

Defenselink offers an interesting Feb 2003 U.S. military memo on embedding journalists. Apparently they even fly reporters high-priority and assist with filing their stories.

Interestingly, the document states that "media embedded with U.S. forces are not permitted to carry personal firearms." One wonders what NY Times correspondent Dexter Filkins did to convince his unit commander to let him carry a handgun across Iraq.

Bomb Cam VNRs

2005-04-03T11:14:00.000-04:00

Two years ago during the first stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I was having a drink in a hotel lounge with a group of young PR flacks I was training. Looking at the TV screen, I saw CNN had split its screen in two: on the right side, precision bomb camera images and other footage distributed by the Pentagon. The left side alternated between the anchor and a reporter describing the images, obviously what he heard minutes earlier in a media briefing.

I turned to the others and pointed at the screen: "Look at that. It’s about the best VNR (video news release) you’ll ever see."

The media may not think see it that way, but commented bomb cam and prepackaged military satellite images are the most successful of VNR. Consider what a VNR is. The only fundamental difference the person replaced by the media outlet is a general trained in PR instead of an actor.

We trust hunky men who save babies

2005-04-02T18:17:00.000-05:00

Léger Marketing mercifully omitted PR practitioners and lobbyist in their Profession Barometer (PDF doc).

Once again, firefighters score highest. Canadians literally trust them with their lives. Nurses, farmers, doctors and teachers come next.

Publicists come 18th on 20. It may be snobbish, but I refuse to think flacks are lumped with that category! C’mon, who do you trust more, a NGO flack or Michael Jackson’s publicist?

Canadian politicians end up at the bottom of the scale. An effect of the Gomery inquiry? Not really, they’ve always been there. Frankly, I think it’s sad given that many of them are hard-working, earnest people (disclaimer: yes, I’ve worked for some of these guys in a previous life.) Perhaps we should have a few firefighters running for office.

Get Your Vote On

2005-04-02T18:15:00.000-05:00

A B.C. youth group is trying cell phone text messaging to bring first-time voters to the polls.

It’s certainly worth a try, I’m curious to see if it makes a difference in the voting stats. Then again, perhaps the continued tuition increases in that province will be more effective in bringing students to the polls.

Lost in translation

2005-04-02T18:11:00.000-05:00

Statistics Canada announced that in 2017, more than half of Torontonians and Vancouverites will likely be members of a visible minority. Most of these people were not born in Canada. They grew up in a different culture and often have a less-than-perfect grasp on English or French. More and more, these people have their own media and influence networks.

One PR/marketing implication: when you use clever wordplay or references to popular Canadian culture, half your audience is wondering what the heck you’re talking about.

Did I really say that?

2005-04-01T18:39:00.000-05:00

Watching the papal coverage on RDI:

Anchorwoman, going into a commercial break:

Stay with us, we hope to have news from the Vatican authorities very soon…

Reporter, feeling smart:

I wouldn’t count on that, if they intended to do so they would have done so by
now.

Ouch! I bet they lost half their audience right there.

The changing face of John Paul II

2005-04-01T18:36:00.000-05:00

I remember the first years of his pontificate, which is telling considering how young I was. The new Polish pope was energetic, progressive, aggressively pacifist. He traveled a lot and was fond of young people. For a time, it seemed he would save the Catholic Church from middle-age fundamentalism.

1. Pope John Paul II is a fervent believer that the devil, who he calls a "cosmic liar and murderer", is a real presence in the world and has personally carried out exorcisms.

2. The former Archbishop of Boston, accused of covering up the activities of paedophile priests and forced to resign, was given a prestigious sinecure by the Pope yesterday.

3. A solid wall of Vatican-published paper now stands between his successors and an attempt to review the doctrine on birth control and much else.
In contrast, here are some news tidbits from the last year or so from The Guardian:
Add to that his stances against contraception and the any form of legitimacy for homosexuality, it doesn’t paint a bright picture.
The pope’s PR has always been excellent. However, when the product becomes stale the best PR in the world can’t do much.

Clan mentality hits PR world

2005-03-23T21:56:00.000-05:00

Richard Edelman of PR giant Edelman Public Relations Worldwide is saying the smart PR pros will put their money in chat rooms and blogs instead of media relations. Ben Silverman of PRFuel seems to think he’s mildly insane… Okay sure, saying we can afford to bypass the media is probably going way too far, not to say extremely dangerous.

Still, there’s something disturbing in what Edelman has to say.

When asked who they trust more when it comes to getting information, 56 per cent of U.S. respondents trust "a person like yourself" in the most recent survey, up from just 22 per cent two years ago. It’s very rare to see such radical shift in social research over the course of just two years.

The study seems to focus on attitudes toward corporations (Edelman’s main clients) so the data may not translate well in the world of values, but it seems to go in the same direction as Environnics’ 3SC social studies: in the U.S. at least, people look more and more to their peer group for reassurance, consumer choice and the like.

With the multiplication of specialty channels and the more partisan orientation of many media outlets (Fox News, Clear Channel, The National Post, Le Devoir), I fear people increasingly go for sources that will reinforce what they already believe in, instead of challenging their perceptions and forcing them to think. If that turns out to be correct, it has two PR implications:

1. Changing peoples’ mind will get increasingly difficult using traditional techniques, even those who are only weakly committed to an opinion.

2. Covert methods (shielding one’s identity as PR agent, front groups, etc) will become increasingly effective. So far, "trying to influence people who keep (…) blogs, and post messages in Internet chat rooms" (Edelman's words) has meant posting messages under several identities to hype a product.

I like spinning reporters! I don’t want to spend my time pretending to be some guy who signs his messages "Gandalf" hyping the latest game console in some nerdie’s blog.

Road Blocking Night in Canada

2005-03-23T21:53:00.000-05:00

After nine months without NHL hockey, Canadians find other interests…

Protesting students block Montreal highway.
Haida set up blockades on Queen Charlottes.

Dirty Ebbers found guilty

2005-03-16T06:53:00.000-05:00

The verdict is in: former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers has been found guilty of various financial crimes by a Federal Court jury. He risks 30 years to life in prison.

Let's hope it's the first of a wave of convictions, not a sacrificial lamb.

Solid gold hero coin

2005-03-16T06:51:00.000-05:00

The Royal Canadian Mint will start circulating its Terry Fox dollar coin on April 4th, the day of the 25th anniversary of his Marathon of Hope.

Fox might be the only Canadian hero recognized as such by the whole Canadian public. Whether you live in Dawson, Saskatoon, Chicoutimi or Halifax, most people over thirty will identify his name with courage, compassion and sacrifice. Nobody else inspires such admiration coast-to-coast. Not Billy Bishop, not Sir John A. Macdonald, not Maurice Richard.

Twenty-five years after his fateful journey, Terry Fox is a solid-gold Canadian icon. One would wish the Mint would circulate its Terry Fox coins as regular currency, instead of a $15 collector’s item. Putting that small reminder of what is inspiring about Canada into everyone’s pocket would be more effective than the whole sponsorship program ever was.

You get the CEOs you deserve

2005-03-12T10:48:00.000-05:00

After the world was shocked by Enron, Worldcomm and other spectacular cases for corporate crooks, America's corporation pledged to clean up their act. Although we were told those few bad apples were the exception rather than the rule, new accounting rules were put in place. Just in case, you know.

I applaud the new rules. But as long as the business sector chooses to raise crooks, liars and convicted felons to the rank of heroes or victims, "corporate responsibility" and "financial sector reform" will stay empty PR buzzworks.

Junk-bond king and U.S. prison system veteran Michael Milken is at large again and his corporate friends trust him with tens of millions in charity money. Martha Stewart got plenty of sympathy both from brokers and the public for doing "what everyone else is doing."

And Ottawa Citizen's financial columnist Mark Sutcliffe fears the ethical standards we're asking of CEOs are too high (registration required for column).

"Board members are now cracking down at the first sign of trouble, largely to protect the company - and themselves - from liability. One of the mechanisms of their newfound Puritanism is the employee whistleblower." Commenting Boeing's dismissal of its new CEO for having an affair with a company executive, he points out "What used to be none of the company's business now might be a firing offence."

Quite right. It's about time shareholders make it their business to know what's going on in the company they own.

The Tough guys at Qorvis

2005-03-12T10:30:00.000-05:00

PR pro Jim Horton reports on a story by Atlantic Monthly magazine (subscription required) about a PR course for politicians and pundits who want to perform well in tough television insult contests such as CNN’s Crossfire and Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor. Horton’s horrified that a PR firm would offer such a course in verbal gun-slinging.

Qorvis Communications is indeed horrifying. Even though it's a relatively new player on the PR scene, it has left its mark:

Three associates quit in 2002, uncomfortable with representing the Saudi Arabia government in their U.S. PR efforts.
They use front groups such as the Alliance for Peace and Justice to covertly advance the cause of their clients.
just last December, three of its offices were raided by the FBI as part of an investigation under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Yep, those guys don’t play nice.

Source Watch entry for Qorvis Communications

The invisible $18-million cut

2005-03-07T21:14:00.000-05:00

"Gun registry saves money" – that’s the headline we didn’t see in last week’s newspapers.

According to the Hill Times (the paper edition only), last weeks Estimates included a $ 18-million cut in the Canadian Firearms Centre’s annual budget, because of "improved efficiencies". That’s a small bit of news apparently overlooked by the country’s media organizations.

After years of gleefully reporting cost overruns at the gun registry, one would think the media would report on a the fact they’re cleaning up their act.

Credibility Gap

2005-03-07T21:12:00.000-05:00

Randy White won’t be running again. The Tory MP from B.C. announced he would not seek re-election.

Mr. White (check out his website!) had his 15 seconds of media glory during the last election campaign, when he said once in power, his party should use the Charter of Right’s notwithstanding clause to ignore any court ruling they don’t like.

Considering several polls (including this one, p. 21) point out judges have three times more credibility than politicians do, maybe asking people "Who do you trust more with your rights, us or the Supreme Court judges?" wasn't the right strategy.

Good-bye Mr. White, have a nice life away from the spotlight. Just don’t go into public relations.

Do the work and shut up

2005-03-07T21:07:00.000-05:00

In PRFuel, Ben Silverman points his blog readers to a Washington Post’s article about a small American PR firm that came under fire for boasting about its work in the Ukrainian election. That earned the Web-builders a strong reaction from the Russian media and the displeasure of their client, the Global Fairness Initiative.

As Mr. Silverman reminds us, boasting about your accomplishments without the client’s approval is a no-no in this business.

There is something more to this story though, and that’s the Global Fairness Initiative’s outraged claim that the site "had nothing to do with the election".

That’s strange… The main page has a "The Orange Revolution" button on it (in large orange letters no less). Click on it and you’ll see an endorsement of everything the main opposition party was standing for.

Okay, let’s do a little journalism of our own. I’ll write to the Global Fairness Initiative and see how they spin that one. I’ll keep you informed.

Paris Hilton gets hacked; Canadian military to the rescue

2005-03-06T10:10:00.000-05:00

I cannot suppress a smile as I learn socialite Paris Hilton got her Blackberry-like Sidekick II hacked. The consequences are fairly bening: her address book, email and yet more topless pictures of her are being sent around the Internet, and Hilton gets her monthly fix of media attention.

Although an interest PR appoach, let's put aside the theory that Hilton let hackers in for publicity purposes and ignore the question of what she’s doing with porn pictures of herself on her mobile communication device.

Instead, let it be a useful reminder to us Blackberry users that those things are not hacker-proof. Sure, it was stupid of Hilton to use the name of her despicable little dog as her password. Still, even those of us using sensible password procedures have to know servers can be - and regularly are - hacked and information stolen. How would your employer or client react when his crisis communication plan is distributed on mailing lists and web sites?

Fortunately - ta-dam! - the Canadian military is coming to the rescue! With U.S. agencies, it’s developing secure Blackberry protocols which might some day become commercially available. That should give aimless celebrities, military officers and PR flacks some peace of mind. In the meantime, change your passwords and use secure connections to share strategic information.

Buerk: News dumber

2005-03-06T10:09:00.000-05:00

Iconic BBC journalist Michael Buerk addressed Ryerson University students about the dumbing down of news media.

Not much to add to that except that meanwhile, PR flacks are obviously getting smarter.

A four-headed network

2005-03-03T21:33:00.000-05:00

At last, a truly global 24-hour news TV network with production offices all around the world is getting underway. After months of speculations, the future network is hiring.

CNN? No. The BBC? Wrong again. The CBC? Oh, that’s a good one!

This fall, Al-Jazeera is launching its global information network, in English. It will broadcast from its main studios in Qatar only six hours per day. The Tokyo studios will then take over for another six hours, then New York and finally London.

From what I’ve seen of it on their English-language web site, Al-Jazeera isn’t making good journalism… yet. But the incredible creative friction that will develop between the four production centres might just be what it needs to become something interesting. In any case, it will be unique, a development as important in the history of television as the launch of CNN. That alone is reason to watch.

Playing nice

2005-03-02T20:44:00.000-05:00

Once again with the Ketchum/White House rent-a-pundit scandal, PR gets bad press and the PR blogging community is lamenting the fact that a few bad apples in the PR basket give a bad name to the rest of us.

To their credit, several PR pros are saying we need to identify the criminal elements among us and subject them to a good public shaming (not in such strong language but that’s the idea.)

Others still go the easy way: PR needs a PR campaign! By explaining to people what we’re all about they’ll understand us and get to like us. It’s being spinned a little like this:

"Most people working in PR are hard-working, ethical-minded people who work from their home, go to church and love small furry animals. The only crooks are the big shots like Ketchum and the Rendon Group. The rest of us seek to serve information services, not control them."

Yeah, well... good luck guys.

Actually, I had this "Most PR pros are good people" conversation on the blog of another PR practitioner last year. The argument went back and forth using the "comments" function, both points of view being displayed for all to see.

I didn’t think much of it at the time, but it’s rather ironic that once the conversation was finished the blogger erased the whole discussion (leaving the "you’re right, man!" comments of others). I’m not blaming him, it was just a natural thing to do: when you have control of a medium, you use it to your advantage.

Grandmas more reliable than information technologies

2005-03-02T20:12:00.000-05:00

When reports came in that Simeulue Island had largely been spared from the Dec 26th earthquake and tsunami despite its proximity to the epicenter, Indonesian media supposed the people living there survived because the wave didn’t have time to gain strength.

It turns out the wave hit those communities hard, but only seven people died. According to Associated Press, the people of Simeulue were the only one to get a warning in time. While modern, up-to-the-minute information networks worldwide failed to act in time to save lives, the people of Simeulue relied on a far more effective system: their grandparents.

Unlike hundreds of thousands of others who thought the worst was over when the shuddering stopped, the islanders remembered their grandparents’ warnings and fled to higher ground in fear of giant waves known locally as "semong," AP reports. The last tsunami to hit the island was in 1907.

Three PR lessons from this:

In some societies, oral tradition is still a critical element of culture and the most credible source influencing people’s behaviour.
In a crisis, getting the right information into the right hands is your no. 1 priority.
Listen to Grandma!

The grass is greener on the dark side

2005-03-01T20:47:00.000-05:00

I met yet another reporter-turned-PR-flack today. After many years as a journalist in a weekly, he finally took a PR Officer job with an Ontario school board a few months ago.

Why jump the fence? "No more crazy hours, there's less stress. It gives me more family time."

Sure, plenty of people in the business work 80-hour weeks, but it's true there are many jobs out there for those who want to actually have a life outside of work, at least for a few years while the kids grow up. Meanwhile, most journalists haven't seen a real improvement in their conditions over the last ten years. For many, media concentration has meant even more work, as they have to feed the associated radio station or weekend paper on top of their regular workload. That makes them very receptive to offers of pre-packaged news by public relations professionals.

"Welcome to the Dark Side", I told the former reporter. His smile made it clear there would be no looking back.

1. Fill up. 2. Flush. 3. Repeat as needed.

2005-02-28T21:22:00.000-05:00

Former B. C. Cabinet minister Rafe Mair, now a talk-show host, commented the Vinning phone-in incident by saying it’s very common for supporters of a political party to stack the lines. His trick to fight them: "You let the phone board fill up and then you cancel them all. Then start afresh and hope from there you got rid of the stackers."

Geez, now we have to get our people lined up to call at various moments of the show. I’ve said it before, folks: the job of PR flacks isn’t getting any easier.

The trucker from Surrey

2005-02-28T21:11:00.000-05:00

There’s no doubt open-line shows matter for politicians and the PR flacks who gravitate around them. It’s an opportunity for politicians to show they like being in contact with people and they’re not afraid of a little controversy. It’s important for your boss to look good though and there’s nothing like a soft-ball question from a caller to help him along.

Unfortunately, the good folk can’t always be counted on to ask the right questions, so they have to be helped along too. In most organizations, PR practitioners arrange for supporters to call in with questions on specific themes. Prem Vinning, an aide to British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, has a nice "do-it-yourself" approach to the problem. He called in as "Peter, a trucker from Surrey" to ask about the Premier’s plan for road transportation.

Problem: plenty of people recognized his voice (but not Premier Campbell or so he says).
Outcome: Vinning "withdrew" from his cushy job promoting commerce with Asia.

Lesson: some cheap stunts are not worth the risk, people.

Back into Montag's skin

2005-02-26T22:17:00.000-05:00

Hi all.
It's been so long... After being insanely busy at work for months, then taking on a new job (a great one), I'm ready to reappear as Montag again. I missed it!

So here we go again... Public relations, creative ying and misleading truths.

Patriot game, media shame

2004-07-29T08:36:00.000-04:00

Good column by Lawrence Martin in today's Globe and Mail, on the complete breakdown of American journalism during White House's campaign to paint the Iraqi dictatorship as a mortal danger for Western Civilization.

As journalists have been duped so often, admittedly duped, how can anyone say the media system in America is working? In times of foreign crises, the press doesn't report. It is politically exploited. It is supposed to reflect truth and reality but, by treating politically motivated White House words with face-value reverence, it is distorting that truth and reality and succumbing to patriot games.

Well said.

The PR value of drinkable water

2004-07-29T07:46:00.000-04:00

Médecins sans frontières, the Nobel-prize group of doctors offering their services to troubled areas around the world, has decided to pull out of Afghanistan after 24 years of continuous work, joining the chorus of independent help groups saying the behaviour of United States troops is turning aid workers into targets.

American troops and others (including our own Canadian troops) have been busy building schools, repairing roads and purifying water, hence blurring the line between soldiers (bad guys with guns who shoot people and ride in armoured personnel carriers) and aid workers (good guys with shovels riding in pick-up trucks). Aid workers have been noticing that the more soldiers do reconstruction work, the more aid workers get shot at. Just a month ago, five Médecins sans frontières volunteers were killed in an ambush.

So what's going on here? Is the campaign by occupation forces to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people - occupation PR - pushing aid agencies out? Since the military is doing the job, should the aid agencies even be there?

The potential benefits of rebuilding a country's infrastructure - or build it from the ground up as is largely the case in Afghanistan - is deemed worth the enormous manpower necessary. If in the bargain people get clean water and a roof over their heads, everyone's a winner right?

Not quite.

If the military is good at building things, they're no experts at giving aid, as last year's food distribution disaster in Southern Iraq showed. How to effectively feed a population while preventing profiteering is just not part of military training.

Actually, feeding people and winning acceptance for the occupation may not even be the main objective of the occupation forces. Aid workers indicated one reason they were being confused for military personnel is the troops have been distributing leaflets implying only those who gave information on guerrillas would receive assistance.

Winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people? Bullshit. Blackmail has never been a public relations tool.

So in the end, the American "food for snitches" intelligence-gathering operation is pushing out legitimate humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan. I'm sure the command staff is rejoicing to see all those independent observers leave.

Is the good doctor sick?

2004-07-27T13:41:00.000-04:00

Curious...

The Ottawa Citizen ran a large piece on the possible effects of climate change on Sunday. A full three pages with illustrations, about the possibility of catastrophic cooling for Northeastern America.

The sharpshooters Big Oil is paying to reply to that kind of press are usually assaulting the Letter to the Editor section (and readers' intelligence) within 24 hours. I fully expected to see a letter signed Tim Ball, Doctor of Meteorology, in the morning paper. No doctor.

If any of you sees Doctor Ball, could you tell him to please get off his patio chair and back to work? Keeping the public confused is a full-time job.

Great with freedom fries!

2004-07-26T13:34:00.000-04:00

Something I found on Warren Kinsella's blog: American patriotic ketchup.

I'm speechless.

On the use of puppets

2004-07-16T10:24:00.000-04:00

It was encouraging to read about transparency, public relations ethics and the insidiousness of spin at various points of this PR Blog Week. On this forum as in others, one gets the feeling public relations professionals are trying to get the industry moving toward new paradigms and values.

The calls for change are coming not a moment too soon.

Ninety years after Ivy Lee was labelled a “professional liar” for saving the Rockefeller’s reputation following the Ludlow Massacre, public relations professionals are still being seen as one of the untrustworthiest categories of human beings. The fact that famous entertainers and talk radio hosts score even lower on the Public relation Society of America’s National Credibility Index does little to make our 42nd (on 44!) place look better.

So after the first century of modern PR, our clients and employers recognize us as valuable members of the team, but the public thinks we’re despicable liars. How about starting the second century with a little public awareness campaign to correct public perceptions and clean up our image a little, as some proposed in other forums? Wouldn’t that improve our professional prospects, or at least our social life?

Perhaps, but we have to clean up our act a little if that fragile veneer of respectability is to stick. If not, we’ll have to continue avoiding the words “public relations” when future in-laws ask: “So, what it is that you do?”

The ever-present “spin”, mostly the look-at-the-bright-side variety, is probably what most people would complain about. As Jim Horton mentioned earlier this week, there’s “too damn much of it.” Cutting down on spin won’t be easy though, in part because the line between “a good pitch” and a bad spin can be tricky at times, and being recognized as a good spin doctor is a point of pride in some sectors of the profession.

I’m actually more concerned with the increasing awareness among the public that PR operations make massive use of seemingly independent groups or experts to bolster the credibility of dubious claims. The practice of putting together front groups as part of “astroturf” campaigns and buying the services of researchers with scientific credentials is now so widespread that it’s entirely possible most people interviewed as experts by the media are being fed their lines by a major PR firm.

Fairly few PR outfits and departments can summon the resources and ruthlessness necessary to use these tactics, but they’re having a large impact. On a global level, examples include climate change issues, genetically altered foods and foreign policy.

If they are allowed to continue, these practices might have lasting negative effects on academics and legitimate NGOs when large segments of the public realize the media makes little efforts to separate independent voices from PR puppets. Part of the blame will be placed at the door of some of the world’s largest communications firms, especially those that associate themselves with a controversial message for a long period. When people get sick, or global temperatures rise, or the earth doesn’t stop turning, inquiries will be made to learn why so many experts said were so sure about something that turned out being false. In some cases, the link between the faulty message, PR firms and their clients will be easy to follow.

Something to keep in mind in the ongoing discussions on establishing standards for public relations.

Back from the grave

2004-07-16T09:59:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone.

I’m back to blogging after a few weeks of intense work, being sick and some rather demanding extra-professional activities.

The Global PR Blog Week 1.0 is turning out to be a very interesting event, with PR pros with various backgrounds offering advice and experiences. I'll file my own contribution later today.

Some posters put in extra effort and conducted interviews, including one with Jay Rozen on participatory journalism and transparency. Read all the way to the bottom: the reactions to the interview are nearly as interresting as Rozen’s comments.

Thanks to those who wrote to offer comments on the blog. Feel free to use the Comments function, people.

Leader's Debate: Spin Time for Journalists

2004-06-16T11:47:00.000-04:00

The English-Language Canadian Federal Election Leader’s Debate took place yesterday. For the leaders, it’s an opportunity to reinforce their branding and swing some undecided voters their way. For voters, a chance to decide who to vote for, cheer for the guy you already chose, or convince yourself none of those four white middle-aged men is worth your time.

For others, it’s a chance to show you’ve got ideas, that you’re tough and that you’re a big shot who know how people think. For the reporters asking the question, debate night is the Oscars of journalism, a recognition that you’re a big name in the business. You only get to say a few words though, so you choose them carefully.

It seems to me the journalistic ego-trip went a little too far this time. Scolding the top four politicians of the land as if they were schoolchildren caught with unmade homework is fair game (and so popular with people back home), but when the reporters take the stage to do the spin, things have gotten out of hand.

Predictably, Global’s David Vienneau kept spewing right-wing rhetoric, but CTV infostar Craig Oliver wins the award for Best PR Flack Wannabe. His rant on the public healthcare system fits nicely with the focus of this blog on creative lying and misleading truths. “The current healthcare system goes much further than Tommy Douglas ever intended”, he spit at NDP leader Jack Layton. Mr. Oliver’s microphone was off when Layton replied that he was dead wrong (Medicare pioneer Douglas wanted medications and dentistry work fully covered), but we could clearly hear the elder reporter yelling something back at the NDP leader.

I’m sure Mr. Oliver would run for office himself if he could live without the journalistic perks he currently enjoys, namely the high pay check, short work hours and not being accountable to anyone. Until he musters the courage to do so, he should leave debating to politicians and spinning to public relations professionals.

Massaging the message

2004-06-08T14:43:00.000-04:00

McGill’s University’s Observatory on Media and Public Policy is doing a continuing survey of how different newspapers portray the different parties and leaders in the federal election. Some of the results indicate that some media have let their ideological bias trample their ethics.

Not surprisingly, the Liberals get clobbered everywhere, although with varying degrees of intensity. All of the seven major newspapers studied run more negative elements than positives ones about Paul Martin and his campaign.

What’s troubling are some major differences between publications. Analysis of the National Post’s coverage (reports, columns and editorials) reveals a score of –38% toward the Liberals, 0 being neutral. On the other hand, the Vancouver Sun seems to go much easier on the ruling party, with a score of –10%.

The image of opposition parties varies just as widely. The Calgary Herald’s portrayal of the Conservatives is at +12%, while the Toronto Star ends up at –13%. The NDP gets the same kind of widely varying treatment. You think the Bloc Québécois gets a break from the Quebec media? Not so. The only media to portray them in a positive light is the Globe and Mail, while Le Devoir’s coverage is at –10%.

Portraits of leaders are even more diverse. Jack Layton’s score varies from +9% (Vancouver Sun) to –32% (National Post).

Liberal insiders are already using the study to support their claim that the media is out to get them. That’s besides the point. After all, if the Liberals are having a bad campaign – and they are – it has to show in the media. However, the study highlights the fact that some media shamelessly favour one party and leader over the others in their news stories.

When reporters and news editors try to directly influence the way people vote, it changes the way PR flacks work considerably, including how and to whom they make information available and access to the leader. When the media outlets stop pretending to be objective, those responsible for media relations may start seeing them as opponents or allies, instead of part of the democratic process.

The job of communication officer on the media bus (mediasitter) getting any easier.

The best spin blogs

2004-06-08T09:52:00.000-04:00

Canuckflack (winner) and PRMachine (honourable mention) won the honours for best PR-topic blogs in MarketingSherpa's blog contest.

Congratulations to the winners! Both blogs are a good source of insight, advice and news for public relations.

Personally, my vote goes to PRWatch though.

Delusional optimists

2004-06-07T09:47:00.000-04:00

James Horton, a PR pro who maintains the very good online-pr blog, writes about how successful optimists like Ronald Reagan can be in public relations:

“I have watched great PR salespersons spin stories I knew not to be true, but they made them happen and the end result was reasonably OK. I wonder how one does that, and the answer appears to be that optimists believe what they say to be true, whether it is or not. They are people whose dispositions see good even where there isn't much possibility of it.”

There’s another term than optimist for that kind of behaviour: delusional.

I cheerfully admit to believing the PR goulash I was serving the media from time to time, when I was working in partisan politics. As Horton points out, you get better results when you actually believe what you say is true. I often think about that when I watch various pundits and columnists (many of them are little more than PR flacks with a thin veneer of journalism) say things that are patently false. Do they really believe what they say? At that moment, they probably are. If they repeat it often enough, they’ll believe it all the time.

Summer reading

2004-06-06T13:14:00.000-04:00

I just purchased Smoke & Mirrors - The Canadian Tobacco War, by activist Rob Cunningham. Okay, so I'm eight years out of date on my reading... Those years have been busy ones!

It looks like an excellent account of the public relations war between activists and the tobacco industry, which the good guys mostly won after a long and hard fight. I did enjoy similar books tremendously (see below), so I look forward to sitting down with that one. I'll do a complete report when I'm done.

Suggested reading

Where on Earth are we going, Maurice Strong
2030 - Confronting Thermageddon in Our Lifetime, Robert Hunter
Montfort: La lutte d'un peuple, Michel Gratton
Carbon Wars - Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era, Jeremy Leggett

A good spin improves with age

2004-06-06T13:11:00.000-04:00

Spin, like good wine, can improve with age.

So it is with the Normandy landings, of which the West celebrates the 60th anniversary today. The heroism of the brave soldiers who landed that day is being celebrated and much is being said about the importance of the battle.

The battle "turned the tide of WW II", said George Bush yesterday. "One of the most decisive battles in history", according to the Associated Press. Not to be outdone, the Ottawa Citizen calls it "the greatest invasion in history".

That spin is so entrenched in North American culture such statements are rarely challenged.

In June 1944, Hitler's murderous empire was besieged from all sides. German armies had been pushed out of Africa. They've been soundly defeated before Moscow, Kiev and Stalingrad the year before. All they could hope for in Italy was to make the Allies pay dearly for each mile they gained. The question was not if Germany would be defeated, but when.

As the Allied bravely confronted 58 German divisions in the West, the Russians were plowing through the 228 divisions before them, thanks in part to American vehicules and supplies. For the Germans too, the Normandy landings were merely "the second front": they transferred no assets from the East to the West to meet this new threat.

The allies readily acknoledged this reality back then. Allied Forces Supreme Commander and President-to-be Dwight Eisenhower talked about hastening the end of the war, not single-handedly fighting the Nazi juggernaut. It's only after the end of that war and the beginning of another - the Cold War - that the myth of the Battle of Normandy as a world-changing event took form. The Cold War is over, but the myth stays with us.

A wildly successful spin. Still, it seems to me the memory of those who fought on the beaches and the bocage country of Normandy could be properly honoured without hyping the battle as the most important event in Human history.

The Fat Empire strikes back

2004-06-02T14:27:00.000-04:00

The fatty fast-food industry is up in arms following the release of the documentary Supersize me! in major theatre chains.

Of course, people are not forced to eat the greasy, tasteless manufactured food loaded with sugar and salt most fast-food outlets still offer the public. If they insist on ingesting Big Macs, the willing victims of the industrial chefs have only themselves to blame. Still, it’s hard not to poke fun at the likes of McDonald’s and Burger King.

McDonald’s walks a fine PR line about their flagship, the 600-calory burger. They’re basically trying to say eating a Big Mac is part of a balanced diet, while pointing out moderation is an important nutrition principle. They actually manage to hold their message together pretty well, a tribute to the writing abilities of their PR professionals.

By the way, a Big Mac and a large order of French/Freedom fries will get you 90% of your recommended daily quota of fat, 68% of your carbohydrates (with a large Coke) and 60% of your calories, reducing you to suck on carrots until the next breakfast. Don’t even think about that apple pie.

Anyway, back to the retaliatory strike.

Over the last 10 years, the fatty food industrialists and the PR agencies they pay have been busy putting together front groups such as the American Council on Science and Health. Those false grassroots groups (the technique’s cleverly called astroturf from the fake grass used in football stadiums) and the “experts” on their payroll reacted with commendable vigour, attacking the movie in every media interview their PR people can get for them.

The credibility of an organization has a major impact on how its message will be received by the public. People might not believe a McDonald’s spokesperson saying eating a Big Mac every other day has no impact on your health, but they will be more attentive if it’s said by Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, President of the American Council on Science and Health. Most people have no way of knowing the ACSH is founded by McDonald’s and other corporations or that Dr. Whelan is a mouthpiece for the fast food industry.

The media’s public affairs rolodexes are filled with experts and spokespersons of such front groups, who are called upon to comment on issues critical to the choices people make, from nutrition to medication, education to taxation.

The success of astroturf campaigns depend on deception. How’s a citizen supposed to know oil and coal companies in fact owned the Global Climate Coalition?

He can’t. Reporters can but more often than not, they don’t care to find out.

Candid translation

2004-06-01T11:12:00.000-04:00

Translation error or candid admission? Engrish.com shows a picture of a public “Propaganda Board” in China displaying what looks like either a large-print version of a newspaper or government announcements.

I sincerely hope governments, lobbyists and other sources of “information” around the world will follow this fine example of Chinese candidness and transparency.

What a good panel topic for the upcoming Canadian Public relations Conference! Is anyone at the CPRS reading this?

Labour of love

2004-05-28T16:05:00.000-04:00

I just read PR veteran Douglas Armour's column on why PR professionals would want to work in non-profit organizations. Typically, the pay is sub-standard, the hours can be very long and you never have a proper budget, but many of us can't see themselves working in any other environment.

"The potential for taking on a larger role, having a larger impact, and gaining or sharing experience motivates many communicators to consider NPOs as a viable career option at every level of career experience," Harbour writes. Very true, although sharing experiences can be difficult in outfits where one person handles all communication work, including writing correspondence and changing the water cooler bottles.

For me, the greatest joy of working for a small-to-medium NPO is the short reaction time. Acquaintances working in the public service (depressed, bitter guys and gals in good suits) look at us in envy when we tell them how we can get out a news release in one hour. In most cases, our messages hit the airwaves a full half-day before their news release gets on Canada News Wire.

Working for a small NPO can be rewarding and a lot of fun. And once in a while, you get to hit the bad guys in the balls.

Francophones don’t like Tory Leader’s poutine

2004-05-28T11:45:00.000-04:00

Stephen Harper’s brand new Conservatives hit their first major snag of the campaign after just four days. The blow came not from the ruling Liberals, but from francophone groups, who are understandably suspicious of the Reform/Alliance past Mr. Harper and many of his close collaborators.

Harper’s troops swore they wouldn’t get pictured as French-hating bigots this time, so they adopted the tactic of coming out with a strong pro-bilingualism position (although a hollow one) right on the second day of the campaign. “French will be a national priority for me”, said Harper during a campaign event in Quebec.

There, it’s settled. On to something else, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.

There were enough nuances about “fair” and “sensible” bilingualism in Harper’s statements to make out-of-Quebec francophone groups suspicious, so he kept getting questions about the issue. Cracks in Harper’s message started to appear after 24 hours. Then the party’s Official Languages Critic, Scott Reid (Lanark-Carleton), made the national news after he told a reporter bilingualism should be limited to some areas where francophones are the more numerous. About half a million francophones would stop receiving services in their language from the federal government.

The whole thing forced Harper to sack Reid as Official Languages Critic and to elaborate on his own views on bilingualism. It turns out he too would cut support to smaller francophone communities after all. His earlier statement to make bilingualism a national priority now looks less like a promise than a threat.

PR lessons from all this?

1. If you’re going to boldly face a controversial issue, make sure everyone on your side sticks to the message.

2. If you use a message to hide an ugly truth, absolutely avoid prolonged media exposure.

3. If you screw up, it’s nice to have a sacrificial lamb handy.

It sucked, but everyone did a great job

2004-05-27T16:12:00.000-04:00

New York Times Editors Bill Keller and Jill Abramson sent a memo to their newsroom staff saying it's not the reporter's fault if their publication printed false information about the situation in Iraq before the war. They were all "misled on a number of stories by Iraqi informants dealing in misinformation."

Let's see if I get this straight... So they were fed blatantly false information about weapons of mass destruction by the Iraqi National Congress, an organization that's been trying to get the U.S. to invade Iraq for years. There was no way anyone could verify the information, so the CIA, the White House, the New York Times and CNN all assumed it was true.

Now that it's clear most of those WMD claims were entirely fabricated by the INC, everyone's whining: but they lied to us! Not very mature. How about saying some people didn't do their jobs properly?

I'm as anxious as anyone to see INC's mouthpiece Ahmed Chalabi arrested, but don't you think many people were way too complacent?

It's never too soon to say it's too late

2004-05-27T11:28:00.000-04:00

Limiting policy options to just a few choices (or no choice at all) is a time-honoured public relations technique. When you get people to believe that “my policy may be bad, but the alternatives are worse”, you’re doing pretty well. The nuclear energy industry, President Bush in Iraq and most dictatorships are all asking people to endorse their products as being better than chronic brownouts, more terrorism or revolution. The trick is to obscure the debate by pushing aside all reasonable options.

A slightly different twist is telling people that it’s actually too late to choose.

George Bush: It’s too late to change our minds about Iraq. If we pull out now, there will be a horrible civil war. We have a moral obligation to stay the course.

Big Oil and their cronies: It’s too late to sign the Kyoto agreements now that most countries have rejected it.

Big Oil and their cronies 2: Scientists say it’s too late to reverse global warming anyway. So why get wreck the economy too?

Interesting to see how the same people who put us in trouble in the first place then say it’s too late to do anything about it. But after all, public relations are a lot about avoiding responsibility.

Clean campaing

2004-05-24T23:35:00.000-04:00

Speaking of the Federal election campaing, I've got to say the Bloc Québécois' slogan is a PR gem.

"Un parti propre au Québec". For those of you whose French is less than perfect, the sentence can be understood as meaning that it's a "clean" party, or that it's only in Québec, the only province where the Bloc is running candidates. It taps directly into the government's "adscam" credibility problems and the nationalist feelings of many Quebecers. Beautiful.

The blood pressure of Liberal candidates in Quebec is going to go through the roof every time they see a Bloc sign. Memo to campaing managers: time to practice those reanimation techniques.

The Bloc is riding high in the polls, they've got a great slogan and E-day is four days after the Saint-Jean-Baptiste celebrations. What can possibly go wrong?

Oh yes, they've got Gilles Duceppe as leader...

Reporters are losing faith

2004-05-24T22:58:00.000-04:00

Have you complained about crappy media work lately? Well, reporters too think the media isn't doing too well.

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press just released polling numbers showing 45% of American national journalists think reporting is increasingly sloppy and error-prone. That's up from 30% in 1995.

They also say the profit motive is hurting coverage more than before, but that's no surprise considering the media concentration that's been going on in the U.S. (and Canada for that matter), especially in television. They also have less faith in the public's ability to make the right choices. That may simply be because many reporters don't like George W. Bush, right? Not that I blame them for that… Still, there you go: from the journalists' own point of view, they produce sloppy news for a public that can't think straight.

I think it's a safe bet we'd get similar numbers for Canada, even though we don't have Fox News to remind us of how lazy reporters get when they're asked not to think critically. Something to think about on this second day of the Federal election campaing.

The good Dr. Ball gets another hit for the big boys

2004-05-24T14:47:00.000-04:00

This morning, the opinion pages of the Ottawa Citizen were graced with yet another letter from Dr. Tim Ball. For several years now, Dr. Ball has been busy writing to newspapers to say how evil the Kyoto Agreement on climate change is. Using his title as Professor of Meteorology, the good doctor has been telling us again and again that global warming either doesn't exist or is a perfectly natural phenomenon. This morning, he wants the public to punish the Liberal governement for taking measures to curb our use greenhouse gasses.

In 1996, Dr. Ball left his job at the University of Winnipeg for the more lucrative pursuit of scientific gun-for-hire ("environmental consultant"). It looks like he found a home at the American National Center for Public Policy Research, a Conservative front group supporting whatever initiatives their financial backers want them to endorse. Since 1997, one of their principal mandates has been to fight the environment movement in general and in particular, shoot down any regulation to decrease the emission of greenhouse gasses.

The good doctor is now earning his pay by giving conferences saying all those researchers and heads of state who believe human activity has an impact on climate are dangerous idiots. One can also see his handiwork on the Centre's Envirotruth.org website. And he writes letters to newspapers.

Tim Ball seems to have traded his professional pride - not to mention ethics! - for easy money and an invitation to play with the big boys.

He's just one of many, of course… Public relations professional know there's more and more of those scientists for sale on the market, trying to escape jobs with no prospect of advancement or to get funding for their pet projects. The journal Nature, a strong reference in scientific circles, had to completely change its article review process after it discovered many of the texts it published were essentially propaganda pieces disguised as legitimate scientific work.

So Mr. Ball's performance as a mouthpiece for Big Oil and Conservative think-thanks is rather disappointing. A more talented employee would get five-page articles in Nature, not four-paragraph letters in the Ottawa Citizen.

If he were working for me, it would be time for a salary review.