By Fraser P. Seitel
Last week, Dunkin’ Donuts emailed its New York area customers a special offer to have lunch with dreaded rival tight end Rob Gronkowski of the hated New England Patriots, coached by the loathsome Bill Belichick.
Could this missive to outraged Giants and Jets fans have been some sort of colossal mistake?
Yup.
Within hours, Dunkin’ “walked back” its errant email with the following:
We may have accidentally sent you an email earlier today about a chance to have lunch with Gronk at Gillette Stadium. This promotion is intended for our Dunkin' fans in select New England markets. We apologize for any inconvenience. But do feel free to stop by your local Dunkin’ Donuts and try a delicious Dunkin’ Bakery Sandwich. Because no matter what team you root for, every football fan needs to tackle their hunger.
Sincerely,
The Dunkin’ Donuts Team
The PR tactic of “walking back” a damaging statement, misguided judgment or wrongheaded reaction is very much in the news these days. Technically, “walking back” a comment means backing off the original comment, when public backlash renders the earlier statement embarrassing or even untenable.
Last month, when former Vice President Dick Cheney remarked that it was “a mistake” for the Republicans to have selected Sarah Palin as VP candidate, the former sharpshooter hot tailed it to Sean Hannity to walk back his previous pronouncement.
Clarified Cheney, “My point basically dealt with the process in terms of that basic requirement: Is this person prepared to step in to be President of the United States when they’re picked? And it was my judgment — I was asked if I thought the McCain process in ‘08 had been well done or was it a mistake, and I said I thought it was a mistake.”
So there!
More recently, of course, the candidates for President were busy walking back their own foot-in-mouth statements, regarding the latest September 11 anti-American violence in the Middle East.
After President Obama told Telemundo that he didn’t consider Egypt either an “ally” or an enemy, the White House jumped on the backtrack machine.
“I think folks are reading way too much into this,” said a White House spokesman, after it was verified that Egypt was one of 16 nations, including Israel and Japan, which share “major non-NATO ally status” with the U.S.
Obama, said the spokesman, was well aware of Egypt’s status, but rather was speaking “colloquially.”
“As the president has said, Egypt is a longstanding and close partner of the United States, and we have built on that foundation by supporting Egypt’s transition to democracy and working with the new government,” the spokesman explained in his “walk back.”
In subsequent days, the Obama “spin machine” proceeded even to suggest that the President may have purposely planted the seed that in light of the anti-American riots in Cairo, the Egyptian government better get its act together if it wants the U.S. to remain an “ally.”
Indeed, part of “walking back” a misguided comment is an effort to cause doubt that the original statement, even though questionable, may not have been entirely unplanned.
Which brings us to Mitt Romney.
The challenger’s knee-jerk response to the turmoil in Egypt and Libya that cost the lives of four American diplomats was not only unnecessary but also just plain dumb; there is simply no way around it.
After a PR staffer issued a statement from the Cairo U.S. Embassy – which the White House later disavowed – that “condemned the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims,” Romney immediately stormed in.
After expressing outrage at the U.S. deaths, Romney’s statement read, “It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”
Ill-timed. Bad taste. Blatantly political; an incompetence trifecta, in terms of wrong-headed reactions that exposed a campaign brain trust that may be long on “trust” but decidedly short on “brain.”
Fortunately for Romney, someone in his camp had the good sense to start “walking back” the potentially suicidal comment almost immediately.
At his next campaign stop in Virginia, Romney stayed on the message of “grieving” about those lost and refused to return to the ill-conceived comments that got him into the firestorm.
"I know that we've had heavy hearts across America today, and I want you to know things are going to get a lot better. But I also recognize that we're in mourning. We've lost four of our diplomats across the world. We're thinking about their families and those that they've left behind,” was the candidate’s new mantra.
With his first debate with Obama in two weeks, Romney will get ample chance to explain why he believes America needs “new leadership in the world.” For a moment last week, it looked like Romney might bury himself with a self-inflicted verbal mortar.
Fortunately for Romney, he was able to “walk back” the mistake enough to remain in the fight.
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