Good PR Can Guarantee High Job Approval Ratings and High Stock Prices What government and the private sector can learn from one another
June 2006 By Denny Hatch
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In the News
President Bush’s victories receiving little attentionSAN FRANCISCO—When President Bush nominated Gen. Michael Hayden to run the CIA, the press focused on disapproving Democrats and even some Republicans who were dubious about confirmation. A month later, when the Senate confirmed Hayden by a 78-15 vote, the story was given much less emphasis in the media, which had moved on to other stories critical of the Bush administration. Similarly, when Bush nominated one of his aides, Brett Kavanaugh, to the federal judiciary, the press was filled with reports about Democrats threatening a filibuster because Kavanaugh once worked for special prosecutor Kenneth Starr in the case against President Clinton. Last week, there was much less media coverage of a Rose Garden ceremony in which Bush presided over the swearing-in of Kavanaugh, who had been confirmed by a 57-36 vote. Bush has quietly been racking up small victories like these that seem at odds with the media’s conventional wisdom of a presidency on the skids.
—Bill Sammon, San Francisco Examiner, June 7, 2006
The Government Accountability Office issued a report in January 2006 stating that the current administration in Washington spent $1.6 billion on public relations over 2-1/2 years. Of that, $1.1 billion was for military recruitment.
That leaves $500 million for image building. Yet the president’s job approval rating is in the mid- to low 30s.
What’s gone wrong?
Dwight Eisenhower, Master of PR
If you saw George C. Scott in “Patton,” you will recall the slapping scene. Patton, visiting grievously wounded and dying soldiers in a field hospital in Sicily, came upon Pvt. Charles H. Kuhl of the 26th Infantry Regiment sitting on the end of a cot weeping. “It’s my nerves, I guess,” Kuhl told the general. “I can’t stand the shelling.” In his biography of Eisenhower, “General Ike,” Alden Hatch recounted what happened next:
Patton’s fetish was personal courage and this reply seemed to snap his own overwrought nerves. He roared a corrosive stream of abuse and profanity in which such printable epithets as “coward” and “yellowbelly” were the moderate exception. Finally he struck the boy with the back of his hand, sending his helmet liner rolling under the beds.
The Allies were suddenly faced with a public relations disaster. In those innocent times, it had potential consequences akin to Abu Ghraib.
Eisenhower moved quickly, ordering Patton to apologize in person not only to the soldier and all the personnel in the field hospital, but to the entire Seventh Army.
But how to deal with the press? The slapping incidents (there were more than one) occurred in the early summer of 1944. Hatch’s “General Ike” describes how Eisenhower dealt with the press:
According to Quentin Reynolds, in his book, “The Curtain Rises,” he said to Eisenhower at the press conference, “This would be a nasty story to get out. [Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph] Goebbels could do a lot with it. Every mother in America would think that her son was being subjected to this sort of treatment.”
Eisenhower replied wearily, “I know, I know. But I will not impose any censorship on the story. No security is involved.”
The correspondents assured Eisenhower that they believed it was up to the Army to handle the story as it saw fit.
“I appreciate that, boys,” Eisenhower said, “but I still won’t order any censorship ban.”
Takeaway Points to Consider:
• “Public relations is the art and science of letting people in on what you are doing.”—Evelyn Lawson
• PR is an ancillary marketing technique that relies on the good will and interest of the media.
• I know of no business that was ever built entirely on PR.
• If a PR crisis erupts, confront it immediately. Do not let it fester, or it can take on a long life of its own.
• It is often not the misdeeds that get people in trouble; it’s the attempted cover-up.
• “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters—one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.”
—John F. Kennedy
• “Credibility is very much like virginity. Once you lose it, it is very difficult to regain.”
—Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
• “Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.”
—Bill Clinton
Web Sites Related to Today's Edition:
How to write a press releasehttp://tinyurl.com/bcqpa
http://tinyurl.com/fqfzk
http://tinyurl.com/kzayd
Priceline.com and the Media
www.pricelineandthemedia.com
Companies Mentioned:
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