Monthly Archives: March 2010
Pick Media Battles Very, Very Carefully
We nearly always counsel our reputation management clients against any media relations activity that risks drawing more attention to a negative issue through the creation of the dreaded “second-day story.” Toyota recently took just such a risk when it demanded ABC retract and apologize for a recent story that suggested that electronics were to blame …
"I can has cheez burger…" and other ways to make millions by listening
So the guy in the front of the room is getting a laugh a minute. He’s wearing over-the-top white-rimmed glasses. You might guess he’s on the low side of 40, a little stockier than thin … nothing too remarkable. Unassuming, self-effacing. Ben Huh is talking about how he makes a living—posting goofy photos of cats …
Recall Last Resort: CEO Intervention
While I was helping lead a crisis communications workshop earlier in the week, I received a question that arises in nearly all events such as this: “When should the CEO speak?” “Never,” I thought to myself, knowing full well what the questioner was thinking. Toyota Motor Company CEO Akio Toyoda has been much in the …
Building support: Passionate belief trumps cold, hard facts
You may or may not know that there is a passionate debate brewing the world-over on the subject of food–who has it, how to grow it, which approach is best to feed our burgeoning population. There are many who argue the facts, or at least the facts as they see them. Individuals and groups who …
Advocacy Journalism
I don’t like editorials. I didn’t like them when I was a journalism student in college, I didn’t like them when I was a newspaper reporter and I don’t like them now. I’ve never understood how society benefits from a media outlet taking an institutional position on an issue. Since that position is demonstrated through …