By Fraser P. Seitel
Last week, as the world watched, the news from the scene of the mine was grim. With 276 men at work 2,000 feet below the surface of the earth, a sudden gas outburst had suddenly rocked the mine and the miners in it. As the world media rushed to the scene, 20 miners lay dead and another 17 remained missing.
All attempts at a rescue remained futile, and the frantic and tight-lipped government bore the brunt of the guilt.
Chile?
No. This was the mine in Henan province in central China, where chaos reigned as the impact of a deadly coal mine explosion brought new calls for safety measures in China's mines.
Meanwhile, the world continued to marvel at the miraculous mine rescue in Chile, witnessed in living (thankfully) color by as many as one billion viewers around the globe.
Lost in the euphoria – indeed, the most unreported part of the entire story – was the unprecedented PR risk that Chilean President Sebastian Pinera took in exposing the ongoing, untested rescue to live, wall-to-wall, worldwide, immediate TV coverage of every development – good and bad – at the center of the storm.
President Pinera's strategy was not only breath-taking but counter to any experienced PR crisis wisdom.
Specifically, the first rule in any crisis is to assume the worst case, consider the downside and "downplay expectations," so that the public's hopes -- and your own credibility -- are not crushed by unexpected problems or tragic consequences.
In the case of the Chile mine, seasoned PR counsel would have advised the president to set up a time and space barrier between the media and the miners ascending to the earth's surface after a 700-meter capsule ride through damaged earth.
It would have been perfectly understandable for the rescued miners to be given 20-30 minutes of "privacy" before being closely observed by the 1,600 reporters, camped out with their satellite phones and TV trucks at Camp Hope in Copiapo, Chile. Indeed, this was precisely the advice of Chile's now legendary Mining Minister Laurence Golborne.
Such PR counsel made eminent sense.
• What if the capsule had conked out or malfunctioned with a miner inside as the world watched?
• What if a miner took ill, passed out or worse on the televised ride up the shaft?
• What if, god forbid, a miner arrived unconscious when the hatch opened at televised arrival?
• Shouldn't we take whatever preemptive action necessary to prevent the world from witnessing, in live, gory detail, an out-of-control, spiralling human catastrophe?
But President Pinera threw such cautious counsel to the wind, rejecting it out-of-hand and letting the world witness the rescue – every aspect of it – in real time. (Fox's Shepard Smith, for one, couldn't believe that the Chileans even decided to eliminate the "30-second video delay" they had originally established.)
So confident that "things would be fine," the former banker-turned-politician defied common sense wisdom and the odds and presided over a picture perfect rescue. As a consequence, President Pinera, little known to anyone outside Chile only a week ago, is today hailed as the essence of a competent and courageous world leader.
Such was the power of his stunning PR victory.
Now, of course, comes the real PR challenge to the miners, as they are besieged by lawyers, agents and promoters for the movie rights, book contracts, speaker fees, promotional appearances, sponsorship opportunities, et al.
Reportedly, the 33 men in the world spotlight will "pool" all royalties accruing from their ordeal and share equally in the publicity spoils of their harrowing ordeal.
Good luck.
Already one Spanish outlet offered to pay for a photo of the miner whose daughter, also named Hope, was born while he was underground.
A security guard at the hospital in which the miners were kept offered cellphone photos of the men for 15,000 pesos.
As wives and girlfriends – (and in the case of at least one miner, both!) – fielded media opportunities for $40,000-a-pop interviews with the next "Latino Sully Sullenberger" -- it appeared unlikely that the story would maintain its "happy ending" quality forever.
But however the promise of untold riches frays the bonds of this underground band of brothers, one fact remains irrefutable: These 33 most unlikely heroes were party to the greatest public relations story ever told.
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