BP Continues to Play the Blame Game – A Dangerous PR Move

By now, we’ve all seen extensive coverage of the oil spill taking place in the Gulf. The images of the oil continuing to gush out, the news that 11 workers died in the explosion, and the heartbreaking shots of animals covered in oil have left a lot of citizens demanding someone be held responsible for this disaster. Of course, it didn’t take long for the blame game to come into play. (Read more…)

10 Ways to Prepare for Public Relations Controversy

Sometimes controversy rears its ugly head in your business. Whether you wake up one morning to unexpectedly find an unflattering story in the newspaper, or the trouble has been brewing for awhile, there are ways to make sure that you mitigate any public relations damage and see your company through to the other side of the storm. (Read more…)

How to Apologize When Your Company Screws Up

Between Tiger Woods and Toyota, there’s been quite a bit of apologizing going on lately, and while ideally you never want to be in a position where you have to say you’re sorry, the good news is studies have shown that customers who receive a sincere apology are actually pretty likely to reconcile with the company. (Read more…)

Jersey Shore Shows That Controversy is King

On the night of its big premiere, Jersey Shore averaged 1.375 million viewers and a 0.8/2 A18-49 rating.  It fared better with adults 18-34, earning a 1.2/4 rating/share. To translate: The ratings were low. Much lower than MTV expected. At the time, it appeared Jersey Shore would bomb. (Read more…)

When (Not) to Hold a Press Conference

If television and the movies are to be believed, press conferences are the backbone of the public relations industry.  Every time a character in a movie makes good, he or she is often seen standing in front of microphones from the likes of the BBC and CNN while dodging rapid fire questions from reporters.  But the operative phrase there is “in the movies.” (Read more…)

The Biggest Public Relations Mistake You Could Be Making

PR mistakes are made every day. If you don’t believe me, just check out a few of the major PR disasters in recent years. Of course, you probably don’t need to worry about facing a PR disaster of that magnitude, but you can still make costly mistakes that can cause serious damage to your brand. (Read more…)

The Tony Soprano Guide to Public Relations

I have a confession to make. I’m kind of a Sopranos junkie. I’ve watched every episode many times over, and if I come across it while flipping through the channels, I’ll stop what I’m doing to watch. So, the other night while watching the “Pine Barrens” episode, it hit me: Tony Soprano is a master at PR. (Read more…)

The Top 5 Publicity Stunts of 2009

2009 was the year of the celebrity publicity stunt. If it wasn’t celebrities themselves angling for the limelight, it was the non-famous seeking celebrity thanks to the influence of reality TV. Without further ado, were the top 5 publicity stunts of 2009: (Read more…)

10 CringeWorthy PR Disasters

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

As Mrs. Roosevelt said, learning from the mistakes of others is an important way to become better at what you do. The good news for us PR folks is there are plenty of mistakes made by others that we can learn from. Just take a look at these 10 PR disasters. (Read more…)

The Dos and Don’ts of Handling Customer Complaints

The way your company responds to customer complaints goes a long way to shaping how the public perceives you. Just look at my previous post: @Target Customer Service = Fail. (Read more…)