August 31, 2010 8:20 am : Comments 000
The maturation of the Internet should have been the golden era of the public relations industry. Prior to the widespread use of the Internet, PR firms had to inordinately rely on the mainstream media to communicate client messages to broad-based audiences. Relying on reporters was a dangerous and often difficult process; journalists controlled the bat and ball and they all too often were reckless and arrogant in how they wielded their power.
The Internet provided an opportunity to level the playing field. The rise of the blogosphere quickly cut the media down to size and exposed their rampant irresponsibility. Mainstream publications and broadcast outlets were held to an unprecedented accountability standard and many reporters crumbled under the scrutiny. An untold number of prominent media stories have been retracted because of eagle-eyed bloggers.
Harnessed correctly, the Internet can be a powerful marketing tool, but it’s also an effective vehicle for fraudsters, flim-flam artists, and for companies with no qualms about using deception and unscrupulous tactics to win over customers. It’s in the best interest of the PR industry to promote and adhere the highest standards of ethics in Internet marketing. The more credible the medium, the more potent its efficacy.
Sadly, the PR industry has contributed mightily to the corruption of the Internet. One of the biggest global agencies was caught years ago for running the “Wal-Marting Across America” blog, supposedly penned by a couple of customer enthusiasts who turned out to have been shills paid by the PR firm. The person responsible for overseeing the Wal-Mart account was recently deemed one of the most influential professionals in the industry, underscoring that there are no material career consequences for dishonest or questionable practices.
Some PR firms also were caught secretly paying off or bribing bloggers with products to post positive reviews, but fortunately a PR blog named “Strumpette” was quite aggressive about exposing the practice and some industry leaders became quite vocal about condeming the practice. While blogger payola has not yet been eradicated, fortunately most recent exposed incidents didn’t involve PR firms.
Nevertheless, some PR firms still can’t resist employing deception as part of their “strategic” arsenal. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission settled charges with a California PR firm for having its employees “pose as ordinary consumers posting game reviews at the online iTunes store, and not disclosing that the reviews came from paid employees working on behalf of the developers.”
Rather than taking the high road and saying the firm settled the matter in support of the FTC’s desire to ensure greater transparency on the Internet, the company’s owner haughtily dismissed the agency’s concerns as a “frivolous matter”, saying they only agreed to settle to save on the cost of litigation. Perhaps most disappointing of all was the disclosure in the New York Times that the deceptive reviews in question were written and posted by interns. Thus, a new generation of PR professionals was taught that deception is an acceptable communications tool. That’s a toxic message to teach impressionable college students interested in pursuing a PR career.
Sadly, there is no shortage of PR firms who will welcome the skill-set these interns acquired. It’s an open secret that other PR firms regularly engage in having employees post reviews on behalf of clients. Let’s hope that the head of the FTC’s advertising practices division successfully eradicates the practice. Now there would be someone I could get behind as deserving of the “most influential leaders in the PR industry” title.
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August 27, 2010 10:45 am : Comments 001
Taking on a professional internship is daunting enough for a college junior, but the pressure is no doubt magnified knowing that your intern predecessors left mighty large shoes to fill. Now imagine that one of those previous interns came back after graduation and was working at your sponsor company full time…and oversaw the internship program. Well, that was the scenario that Erin Carpenter (Holy Cross, class of 2011) took on this summer. Let’s just say, Erin isn’t easily intimidated.
Today is Erin’s last day as our summer intern. We are truly sorry to see her go.
For several years now, all our interns have come to us through an innovative program sponsored by the College of the Holy Cross. The school’s alumni association provides each intern with a stipend to enable students to pursue internship opportunities that intrigue them intellectually rather than just tempt them financially. Participating companies must have a Holy Cross alumnae on board and pledge to provide a truly meaningful learning experience that goes beyond the usual filing, photocopying and fetching. The program has introduced us to an amazingly talented group of Holy Cross students including Lauren Olney, who interned with us last year and joined us full-time after graduating in June. Others we’ve worked with have been equally talented and impressive (see here, and here.)
We knew that Erin was cast from the same mold when she showed up for work on her first day having already read the Wall Street Journal on her Kindle. Actually, no – it was earlier than that. To apply for the internship, candidates must submit a cover letter and three writing samples with their resume. My colleague Jackie — who has the keenest eye for even the teensiest of errors — deemed Erin’s written correspondence flawless.
As might be expected of a woman who voluntarily took a class at Oxford in Italian Renaissance Art despite having absolutely no background in that area of study, Erin relishes a good challenge. She didn’t flinch when assigned to research the fundamentals of an esoteric Wall Street trading strategy and soon after she was up to her elbows in research for a healthcare initiative. Erin also provided invaluable assistance putting together a timeline for a litigation support project. No filing, photocopying or fetching for her!
Underscoring Erin’s work ethic and commitment, she asked to attend some meetings with various charities she had identified as worthy of support by one of S&A’s clients, even though they started well beyond her scheduled hours and were held on one of those brutally hot days we had this season. Charitable and non-profit work are truly one of Erin’s passions; she spent three summers working as a counselor at a camp for children with Autism, Turrets, ADHD, and other anxiety orders. She also has considerable experience tending to exotic animals (a skill-set that will no doubt come in handy dealing with some members of the media). At Oxford, Erin participated in a program to assist international students with personal and emotional issues.
Erin is the consummate team player. She delights in working as part of a group and never once sought special acknowledgment for her formidable contributions. Erin also doesn’t have much of an ego; one day on her own initiative she opted to clean out the company fridge. Trust me, no alumni association in the world offers a stipend large enough to tackle that nasty task!
Erin continued to impress us even when we took her out for drinks to thank her for her hard work. We learned she has an appreciation for Oban single malt scotch, although a purist would question the appropriateness of her adding ice cubes. Nevertheless, Don Draper would be proud.
Some people see the proverbial glass as being half full, while others see it as half empty. Erin approaches life with an energy and zeal the likes of which we’ve rarely seen. She is a credit to Holy Cross and another example of the impressive discipline and humility the college instills in its students. Though she worked with us for only 10 weeks, she will be long remembered and greatly missed.
Erin, best of luck in your senior year! Care to turn off the lights on your way out for old times’ sake?
To learn about Erin’s S&A experiences and her astute observations about public relations, read here, here, and here.
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August 19, 2010 11:43 am : Comments 000
Having a clear code of ethics is important, but having a demonstrated propensity to actually enforce it is far more so. Corporate ethics cannot be mandated by words alone. The thought may seem obvious, but it seems nonetheless lost on many companies.
Enron, for example, had a strongly worded code of ethics that proclaimed it was “dedicated to conducting business… with the highest professional and ethical standards.” But, employees no doubt knew that the creed was a sham, nothing more than pretty words on a piece of paper to be tacked up on the local office bulletin boards by someone in HR or internal communications.
More recently, there is technology giant Hewlett-Packard and its broken moral compass. H-P’s business conduct standards reportedly require employees to consider how any business decision “would look in a news story.” Hmmm….so “how it might look” should take priority over the rightness or wrongness of the action itself? That certainly seems to be the message, intended or otherwise. And, if that’s the case, then the decision whether to do something unethical will simply come down to how likely it is that they’ll get caught. Who knows how much that played into former H-P CEO’s decision to allegedly fudge his expense account – something rarely scrutinized at his level on a day-to-day basis – but I’m guessing it played a part.
Given H-P’s concern for how actions might be viewed if reported in a news story, it’s a wonder that contractor Jodie Fisher was ever hired to interact with the company’s major clients at corporate events. Her background does not scream “seasoned Corporate America professional.” That Ms. Fisher reportedly commanded as much as $5,000 a day to appear at corporate events is a pretty sad commentary on how H-P peddles its IT products to its biggest customers.
Equally eyebrow-raising, given their “think of how it will look” standard, is H-P’s choice of outside PR counsel when the bad news started to snowball. Let’s just say that firm has garnered more than a fair amount of negative coverage for itself over the years (see here, here, here, and here).
As for Mr. Hurd, his response to his transgression has not exactly been inspiring. Rather than take responsibility and unequivocally admit he made a major mistake in judgment and by doing so betrayed H-P, its employees, and its shareholders (and likely garner a considerable measure of sympathy), he hired a PR firm known for its aggressive “scorched earth” tactics. According to the Wall Street Journal, one of the firm’s message points is that Mr. Hurd’s expense account transgressions were quite small and that he offered to repay the amount, seemingly hinting that the punishment didn’t fit the crime.
When it comes to corporate ethics and reputation risk, potential bad press should have no bearing. None. Zero. Zilch. Adherence to a company’s guiding principles of integrity, trust, and responsibility should not depend upon what the press may report. A code of conduct is a company’s line in the sand about what is right and what is wrong, about what it stands for, and about how it defines itself as a member in some greater community. Sometimes that means companies and their leaders must do the proverbial right thing even when it invites media fallout. Just ask Royal Caribbean.
Early this year, Royal Caribbean faced a very difficult decision in the wake of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, the cruise company’s tourism partner for nearly the 30 years. The cruise company’s private resort called Labadee, located 85 miles or so from Port-au-Prince, suffered very little damage, with all facilities in prime condition to continue hosting ship passengers scheduled for a day of fun there. But as Chairman and CEO Richard D. Fain wrote at the time:
Should we bring guests to our private destination in Haiti or should we simply bypass the island and bring them to another destination further away from all the suffering? Bringing our guests to Haiti could be characterized by some as insensitive to the suffering of the Haiti people in the rest of the country, and we wrestled with this sentiment ourselves. After the government of Haiti asked us to continue to call on Labadee, there really was no choice; bypassing Haiti would do more harm to an already ravaged people by taking away essential income from our employees and their families. The Haitians told us they were desperate for our return and we couldn’t refuse… I remain convinced that we took the only honorable path and I remain convinced that we and Haiti will be better off in the long run because of it.”
As soon as the first ship dropped anchor and started tendering passengers ashore, the “how dare they?!” newspaper articles started, as Royal Caribbean’s management and savvy PR team undoubtedly knew that they would. The initial press was unfavorable, but Royal Caribbean stayed the course, working to explain their rationale for returning to Labadee and their broader contributions to Haiti’s recovery, both financial and in terms of getting much-needed food, materials, humanitarian aid, and other much-needed items to the country. In other words, they did what they thought was the right thing, backlash be damned.
Given the competitive nature of business today, adhering to ethical and moral business practices is more difficult than ever. Staying on the honorable path requires a strict moral code and a team with shared values. Given H-P’s code of conduct and the company its board and Mr. Hurd chose to keep, it’s little wonder they find themselves in such a messy and distasteful situation.
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