FUMBLE – “CORPORATIONS ARE PEOPLE” SAYS ROMNEY

This week's perspective from Bob Reid: He’s not wrong.  Ultimately, corporations ARE people:  employees, management, directors, investors – and those human beings feel the effects when the corporation they are part of pays higher taxes.  But for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney this week, being technically right didn’t matter.  In the midst of some strident heckling during a summer fair speaking opportunity, Romney responded to calls for corporate tax increases to help fund social programs by saying “Corporations are people” – and in one sound bite, handed his opponents a bumper-sticker of a line that will live on throughout his entire bid for the White House.  It’s hard to do when under fire, but it’s imperative that communicators consider the potential repercussions of every statement they make BEFORE it crosses their lips.  Case in point: before I had even heard Romney’s remark, a trending hash-tag game on Twitter was #ReplacePeopleWithCorporations – prompting such re-written classics as “Corporations … who need corporations … are the luckiest corporations in the world.”  If your comment goes instantly viral in a negative way, that’s a Fumble.