"Now you understand,
Ms. Ketchum, that there is no more pivotal program to the
President's domestic agenda than No Child Left Behind. The
reason the Department is spending $1 million on PR is to
make sure the American people understand the importance
of No Child Left Behind to the future of our nation.
"So we need to go
beyond advertising. We need third party support, particularly
in the inner city. What we'd like to do is enlist some friendly
Black influentials -- somebody like Armstrong Williams --
to speak on behalf of the program on talk shows and in the
press. We can even pay them for helping promote our program.
"Any problems with
that?"
So began the Department of Education/Armstrong Williams/Ketchum
Public Relations imbroglio that last week ended with a red-faced
Ketchum issuing a reluctant mea culpa a day after The New
York Times slammed the firm for its ethical failure and
two weeks after USA Today exposed the fraud.
Much has been written about the Ketchum calamity -- even
more than the equally egregious Fleischman-Hillard bill-padding
scandal in Los Angeles. The irrepressible Jack O'Dwyer, for
one, labeled the Ketchum mess "a huge embarrassment to
the PR industry." And Jack, for once, is absolutely right.
The people at Ketchum who passed on that question above either
forgot, or worse, were never aware of the fundamental principles
that ought to underpin public relations counsel and separate
it from other advisors, like lawyers.
Had the Ketchumites considered these PR basics, even for
a moment, they never would have risked the firm's reputation
by agreeing to such a hare-brained scheme.
Here then, as a public service to all those practitioners
of public relations who don't quite understand what the heck
this field ought to be about, are the four PR principles that
Ketchum forgot.
PR Principle #1 - Do
the right thing.
Simple right?
If only…
Any counselor who has gone nose-to-nose with a CEO and his
lawyer, hoping against hope that the bad news won't make the
papers, knows that advising them to "do the right thing"
isn't always easy.
Sometimes, it may be downright suicidal.
If Martha Stewart's PR consultants had had the gumption to
suggest she admit that she lied to federal investigators,
they may well have risked the wrath of the diva of domesticity.
But had she followed such advice, Dame Martha might not now
be baking brownies in the slammer. The "right thing"
in that case was coming clean about the error she made.
In the case of the Department of Education, secretly paying
Armstrong Williams to shill for NCLB clearly was the "wrong
thing" to do. Ketchum should have known that and immediately
counseled its client to forget about it.
The basic question counselors must pose to clients for every
idea proposed is, "Are we willing to own up to this if
it were exposed tomorrow morning on the front page of The
New York Times?" Or USA Today?
PR Principle #2 –
Tell the truth.
A smart public relations advisor will always counsel clients
to avoid being defensive.
"Be proud of what you sponsor," is the advice typically
proffered. "Be willing, proudly and in public, to stand
up for what you stand for."
The reason conservatives adore Rush Limbaugh and liberals
listen to Paul Krugman is that both make no bones about where
they stand, what they support, and who they would ship to
Camp GITMO on the next transport.
Typically, when celebrities appear as spokespeople for a
product or company, they acknowledge the affiliation. For
better or worse.
"This is Lance Armstrong
for Bristol Myers Squibb."
"The whole McNabb
family loves Campbell's Chunky Soup."
"I'm Whoopi
Goldberg, and I use Slim-Fast."
Could Williams have told the truth to interviewers that the
DoE was paying him to vouch for No Child Left Behind?
You betcha'.
Clearly, the Department and its PR counsel feared that if
Williams acknowledged the identity of his sponsor, he wouldn't
be able to land interview gigs to promote the program.
Nonsense.
Their target was cable television for god sakes, not sophisticated
academic journals. As long as Williams was controversial and
outspoken -- he was -- neither CNN nor MSNBC nor Fox nor BET
nor any other cable outlet would have cared if he mentioned
his paid affiliation. For example:
"I should say
in full disclosure, that the Department of Education buys
ads on my TV show, but I gotta tell you that I've vigorously
supported school vouchers for a decade."
As far as the cable talk shows are concerned, as long as
you tell the truth about the sponsorship, they'll leave it
to the viewers to decide if you're sincere.
That's why Donald Trump and Al Sharpton and other assorted
shills are given cable carte blanche to shamelessly tout their
wares whenever they feel like it.
PR Principle #3 –
Admit you were wrong.
This was probably Ketchum's most onerous violation. Once
the USA Today story appeared, its goose was cooked.
Williams, to his credit, recognized this instantaneously
and was out in flash, admitting his error.
"I apologize for my poor judgment in continuing to write
about a topic which my PR firm was being paid to promote,"
he said.
By contrast -- but predictably -- the Department of Education
became a deer in the headlights and remained paralyzed in
"no comment" mode.
And so, inexplicably, did Ketchum.
Obviously, the firm wasn't paying attention in recent years,
as public figures from Mme. Stewart to Gary Condit to the
boys from Enron got dragged down in silence, while others
similarly charged, from Kobi Bryant to Hugh Grant to Randy
Johnson were spared because they quickly admitted the error
of their ways.
Finally, a day after New York Times columnist Stuart Elliott
laid the wood to the firm for clamming up; Ketchum issued
its lame "lapse of judgment" apology.
Saying "I'm sorry" may, indeed, be PR 101. But
it's usually good advice nonetheless.
PR Principle #4 –
You are judged by the company you keep.
The difference between PR counselors and lawyers is that
every client, no matter how heinous they may be, is guaranteed
by the U.S. Constitution the right to the aid of legal counsel.
There is no such Constitutional guaranty for public relations
counsel.
In other words, if your client wants you to do something
illegal, unethical or wrong -- then they shouldn't be your
client. As a practical matter, of course, it's hard to walk
away from a $1 million fee, especially if you've got a public
company parent breathing down your neck to "make your
numbers."
But in public relations, you are judged by the company you
keep. In the final analysis, all you've got in this field
is your "reputation." And as a result of the Department
of Education/Armstrong Williams fiasco, Ketchum's reputation
has taken a direct hit.
And so, too, alas, has that of the public relations business.
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