Press releases in an over sensitive society

In the winter of 2001, the Washington Post Magazine called out public relations firm, Porter Novelli International, for what the paper called a tasteless news release for one of their clients, Chef America’s Hot Pockets sandwiches.

The Porter Novelli release in question said: Although the last few weeks have been a challenging time for everyone both personally and professionally, I know that we are all striving to return to “normal.” In the coming weeks as you begin to return to your regular areas of focus; I want you to be familiar with Chef America, makers of HOT POCKETS brand sandwiches.

One of their columnists, Gene Weingarten, criticized the release saying, “People don’t buy HOT POCKETS because they are grateful to the manufacturers for their humanitarian gestures. They buy HOT POCKETS because they’re scared of Osama.”

http://scienceblogs.com/

The firm was criticized for trying to capitalize on the terrorist attacks. I’m not really sure that I see the point here. It seems to me that the public relations firm was only trying to acknowledge what was on everyone’s mind at the time. I mean isn’t it a little awkward to just go on with business like everything’s fine?

What was the release supposed to say, “Hey, I know we just suffered a huge loss of precious life and now we as country are afraid for the safety of our citizens but, on the bright side, we just invented a new type of HOT POCKET! I mean honestly, to me this seems to be nothing more than business can’t just stop dead, no matter what’s going on in the world.

However, I suppose there’s always something more that could be looked at when you’re writing a press release. You have to consider every word that you’re writing, because it is a representation of your firm and of your clients. 

I believe that since releases are written so often, they are often overlooked. A public relations professional should take extra care when delivering a press release and be sure edit it for clarity; because as you can see from the controversy over this press release, one small error could have you defending yourself and your clients. 

Hillary's double crossed again

          In the spring of 2008, Democratic presidential primary candidate Hillary Clinton’s chief advisor, Mark Penn, was involved in a heated controversy that landed him in the media’s spotlight. The Colombian government hired his public relations counseling firm to help them pass a free-trade pact. This was in direct conflict with Clinton’s stance—which opposed the pact. And when Clinton’s competitors saw the chance, they jumped on it.

         Penn should have quickly seen the conflict of interest and refused to work on the Colombian account. He was working against himself, trying to oppose the pact and confirm the pact at the same time. It not only made him look like a hypocrite, but his clients as well. Although having both of these large accounts could be very tempting, if you are CEO of a public relations agency you should know that it is important to keep affiliations separate, and that devotion to your clients is extremely important.

         I have always been a strong believer that you should admire the company that you work for. If you don’t agree with what your organization or clients are saying or doing and don’t think that you could stand behind their morals, then that’s not the right place for you. Particularly from a public relations standpoint where you have to show your clients in their best light and champion them to public, you have to be honest about who they are and what they are about. And if you don’t believe in them, then you will have to be dishonest. And in PR, honesty is key.

         Penn’s decision to juggle both a public relations firm and a political candidate campaign was probably not the best choice, because political candidates are notoriously black-and-white on many key issues. The odds of all of your firm’s clients and the candidate’s interests not overlapping would be very slim. In order to represent both without conflict or inattention would be a very difficult job to manage.