PR Debacles and How to Avoid Them
How ‘nuts’ made one guy a chump and another guy a champ
July 2008 By Denny Hatch
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In the News
‘Nuts’ Case: How Did Media Cover Jesse Jackson’s Choice of Words?NEW YORK — When a major political figure or celebrity utters a newsmaking, off-color, remark it is always interesting to observe how different news outlets handle the offending word or words ... The New York Times was coy: “Mr. Jackson made disparaging remarks, apparently including a crude reference to male genitalia, about how Mr. Obama was talking to black people.” A later Times article cited a “vulgar reference.” But CNN.com let it all hang out, so to speak, quoting Jackson: “See, Barack’s been talking down to black people ... I want to cut his nuts off.”
—Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher, July 9, 2008
* Never trust a television studio. You never know when your mike is live and picking up your stupid comments, or the camera is on you while you are picking your nose—or both.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, spiritual and moral adviser to President Bill Clinton—and a man who fathered a child out of wedlock, paid her $40,000 out of his nonprofit corporation and once referred to New York City as “Hymietown,” an anti-Semitic slur—is in the limelight once again. He was caught on camera last week with a live microphone saying, “See, Barack’s been talking down to black people ... I want to cut his nuts off.”
The cable news folks had a field day, and Jackson was forced to apologize to the presumed Democratic nominee.
The word “nuts” made Jesse Jackson look like a chump.
On Dec. 22, 1944, the word “nuts” turned an obscure U.S. Army brigadier general into one of the great heroes of World War II.
The Battle of the Bulge
In the winter of 1944, when Allied forces were clearly winning the war, Hitler ordered one last-ditch, surprise assault. In the pivotal town of Bastogne in the Ardennes Forest of Luxembourg, the U.S. 101st Airborne Division was surrounded. It was the worst winter in years. The weather was so bad that air support and resupply were impossible. The beleaguered Americans were under siege by a vastly superior force and running out of food and ammunition. Gen. Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz sent a party of four German soldiers waving a white flag into the U.S. headquarters to demand that the Americans surrender immediately or face obliteration. The acting commander was Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, who said, “Surrender? NUTS!” A formal message was typed up and handed to the German delegation:
“To the German Commander, NUTS! The American Commander”
McAuliffe’s one-word response electrified the country and the world. The following day the weather changed and the “Battered Bastards of Bastogne” got air support and supplies. On Dec. 26, Patton’s Third Army broke through and came to the rescue.
In this case, the word “nuts” resulted in a massive PR coup, as opposed to Jesse Jackson’s PR goof.
Always Have Your Ducks in a Row!
Takeaway Points to Consider:
* Never trust a television studio. You never know when your mike is live and picking up your stupid comments, or the camera is on you while you are picking your nose—or both.* If you make an off-color remark that can be reported by the media, expect that it will offend some. To gain wide acceptance, it must be spot-on in terms of relevance and should make your point as no other word or phrase can. Ideally, it will also be witty.
* Have your ducks in a row before you make a big announcement. Former President Clinton should have cleared his idea for a joint world trip with former President Bush. Qtrax should have had signed contracts with the record companies before promising 25 million free songs. Secretary Rice should have alerted the news media that Russia would be mad as hell over the missile defense plan, rather than saying she was “disappointed.”
* Is it smart PR for the first lady of France to model herself after Madonna?
* If your idea of good PR is going to court to fight invasion of privacy, be prepared for your privacy to be invaded exponentially and worldwide.
* Put another way, Max Mosley has given a bold new meaning to the term public relations.
Web Sites Related to Today's Edition:
“‘Nuts’ Case: How Did Media Cover Jesse Jackson’s Choice of Words?”http://tinyurl.com/5wtpbc
Memories of Tony McAuliffe’s “NUTS!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTZQUYnrXQQ
“Ex-President Bush Fires Back: I Never Agreed To Be Clinton Envoy”
http://tinyurl.com/5qbf2n
Qtrax: “From today, feel free to download another 25 million songs — legally”
http://tinyurl.com/2elok2
“Music site Qtrax forced into humiliating U-turn”
http://tinyurl.com/2uph63
“Rice ‘disappointed’ at Russia’s stance on missile shield”
http://tinyurl.com/6n8yeu
“Carla Bruni’s new album and the love song for Sarko”
http://tinyurl.com/5ueud6
Carla Bruni Sarkozy in the buff, 1993 portrait by Michel Comte, auctioned at Christie’s, April 10, 2008, for $91,000.
http://tinyurl.com/5se9su
Mosley trial coverage in The New York Times
http://tinyurl.com/5o6ylp
News of the World coverage of the Max Mosley Scandal
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/0904_mosley.php
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