FUMBLE RECOVERY – MACKAY LAUGHS IT OFF

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:

In the wake of suggesting to former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that the golden state and British Columbia shared a common border, Defence Minister Peter MacKay was looking an awful lot like former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle (remember his spelling of “potatoe” (sic) during a classroom photo-op?).  Did MacKay merely mangle the point he was trying to make about a long and close relationship between Canada and California, or does he just have a terrible sense of geography when it comes to western North America?  He hasn’t said yet – but I’m calling it a Fumble Recovery for what he DID say the next day.  After meeting with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, MacKay told reporters they had discussed a number of important security issues “including the strategic role played by the great states of Oregon and Washington.”  The assembled media throng cracked up, and MacKay showed all of us how best to handle such a flat-footed gaffe.

FUMBLE - TTC SHUTS DOWN SHUTTERBUGS

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley:

Logic suggests the Toronto Transit Commission cannot be as bad as Torontonians complain that it is – if only because they complain so much. But sometimes it seems that the transit service Toronto loves to hate goes out of its way to confirm the bad buzz. Case in point: the texting-driver debacle. Riders recently sent incriminating photos, snapped with their mobile phones, of bus operators texting while driving – which is not only an offence in Ontario, but also puts at risk the lives and safety of customers. Asked about the photos snapped by patrons, a TTC spokesman told the Toronto Star: “We ask that people not do that.” Maybe there are legitimate reasons for making that request – the spokesman noted that putting “cameras in the face of operators” was dangerous (never mind that the passenger photos were clearly taken from behind the preoccupied operators). And the TTC did have other things to say – for instance, that it had begun investigations and would discipline the drivers. But that didn’t stop the Star from running the story under the headline “TTC to passengers: Don’t take pictures of texting drivers.” Now, in a crisis situation, it’s important for any organization to show, first and foremost, that it understands the issue and why the issue is serious, and then show that it is acting with the best intentions. The TTC failed miserably on both counts – blaming the potential victims, on the one hand, and on the other showing itself to be more concerned with its employees than with its customers. What should it have done? At minimum, thank the photographers for their help, and then vow to do everything it could to fix the problem. Like many fumbles, this was a missed opportunity to connect with customers.  

TOUCHDOWN – OLG CASHES A BIG WIN

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:

Things have been tough for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation for a long time.  After a seemingly unending string of bad news stories – allegations of winning ticket rip-offs, problems with some instant-win tickets, senior management expenses, on and on it seemed to go – this was an organization in need of a win.  Major change was promised when Paul Godfrey was named Chair last year, and this week we saw a major change in OLG’s communications fortunes.  The story of fixing a multi-million dollar wrong from seven years ago, helped largely by some world-leading technology, was exactly the kind of happy ending OLG needed.  “The right prize to the right person … this is not a clever catch-phrase or a slick marketing slogan, rather it’s a dedicated commitment our staff makes each and every day,” said Godfrey, before presenting seven men with the $12.5 million jackpot they should have received seven years ago – plus interest (nice touch!).  Godfrey’s tale of doggedly determined investigators using state-of-the-art transaction processing technology to find the real winners and prosecute the scammers who took their ticket, combined with the winners’ sense of joy and vindication, made it a terrific story all around.  

TOUCHDOWN – HARPER’S STRATEGIC COMMENT ON DEATH

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:
CBC TV’s Peter Mansbridge scored a one-on-one with Prime Minister Stephen Harper this week, to discuss his five years at the helm of the federal government. It covered a lot of ground, but things really got interesting when Mansbridge asked how Harper might handle some hot button issues if he were to be re-elected with a majority government. Harper dealt quickly with gun laws (would scrap the long-gun registry but no other changes) and abortion (wouldn’t touch it), but was – as Mansbridge rightly noted – not quite as resolute with his answer on capital punishment. To be fair to the PM, he did clearly say that he didn’t think the country wants to go there, and stated that he had “no plans” to re-open the issue “in the next Parliament.” But he also noted that, personally, he thinks the death penalty might be appropriate under certain circumstances. That added bit of candour turned the comment into headlines. Normally, equivocation by politicians is a bad thing: it can often be interpreted as waffling or indecisiveness or, as the Liberals quickly suggested, possibly a sign of a hidden agenda. But that aside, I thought the remark was a very strategic communications play by Harper. He knows that the issue always generates attention, and that his sentiment will not only play well with his core (Conservative) support base, but also with a sizeable number of Canadians overall who agree with it under certain circumstances. Touchdown.
Bob Reid has been a journalist and media advisor to a former Ontario Premier. He is now Veritas' principal media coach.

TOUCHDOWN – GERVAIS STANDS BY HIS ACT

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:
Ricky Gervais’ performance as host of last Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards has been analyzed and dissected more than the average high school biology class frog. Did he go too far? Was he mean/nasty/offensive? And there have been calls from some corners for him to apologize for, well, being Ricky Gervais. His entire career has been built on edgy, pointed, cringe-inducing comedy … and that’s what they got at the Globes. Gervais spoke at length about it with Larry King’s replacement on CNN, Piers Morgan: “They hired me. Like I’m going to out there and not talk about the issues in their industry? Don’t forget, I’ve got to be an outsider there. I mustn’t come out there and schmooze them as everyone’s mate – that’s nauseating. I’ve got to roast them.” I say Gervais was entirely true to his brand, and standing by his performance is the right communications play in the aftermath. Think about it: how brutal would the press be if suddenly he took it all back and said he should not have not been, well, Ricky Gervais?

Bob Reid has been a journalist and media advisor to a former Ontario Premier. He is now Veritas' principal media coach.

TOUCHDOWN – APPLE KEEPS THE DOUBTERS AT BAY

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley:
The departure of a chief executive – even temporarily – is a thorny proposition for a company under just about any circumstances. But it’s even more difficult when your CEO is an industry visionary and a corporate icon. Hence the initial flurry of speculation over Apple Inc. this week when it announced that Steve Jobs was taking an unspecified leave of absence for medical reasons. It’s the second time Jobs, who was diagnosed several years ago with pancreatic cancer, has taken a leave, and last time it sent the stock plummeting. But this time? Not so much. Apple stock was down about five percent on the week following Monday’s announcement – hardly a sell-off - and the media and online speculation about Jobs’ health and its impact on Apple has been far from alarmist. One reason is that the company’s renaissance under Jobs over the past few years has the public believing it’s based on sound fundamentals – not just CEO celebrity. From a communications point of view, the announcement from Apple was skillfully framed to keep scaremongering to a minimum. In medical circumstances, it’s perfectly appropriate to demand respect for the CEO’s privacy – which is what Apple and Jobs did, and they did it well. Jobs made the announcement first to employees, hitting all the right notes about staying involved in high-level decisions, about his confidence in the management team, and about how “my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.” Only then did Apple notify the media. And smartly, rather than have Jobs make a public statement, the company made public his message to employees – a nice finesse that restricted his official visibility to within clearly circumscribed borders, and suggested that his priority was family and colleagues, not about downplaying public concern. Which, oddly, is a good way to downplay public concern. Touchdown.

Joe Chidley has served as the editor of Canadian Business Magazine for over nine years. He is now the senior vice-president of Veritas and oversees the Corporate and Public Affairs practice

TOUCHDOWN – BLAIR SPEAKS FROM THE HEART

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:
I’m always reluctant to “call” a communications play, when the subject matter is so unexpected and so tragic. But I must give kudos to Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair for his heartfelt, sincere and heart-tuggingly human comments on the loss of Sergeant Ryan Russell, horrifically killed in the line of duty when he was run over by a stolen snowplow. “This is the worst of days,” Blair said, a career cop articulating the pain of all of his colleagues. Official statements at times like this can go badly if they lack sincerity and empathy, but Blair was all of those qualities personified. Further, given the cloud that he and his force have been under for many weeks now amid the G-20 fallout, he also knew better than to take any step at all toward the line of saying something like “I hope people are thinking twice now about how they view the men and women of the Toronto Police Service.” He knows how inappropriate that would have been – and also how unnecessary. Touchdown, Chief.

FUMBLE – FORD OWNS PHANTOM TTC HIKE

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:
The strategy was right – a classic, in fact – but the execution was a Fumble. Mayor Rob Ford, unveiling his first budget plan for the city, pointed to a number of things contained within but the headline quickly became a 10-cent TTC fare hike. Normally, politicians and others in senior leadership positions tend not to speculate about things which may or may not ultimately come to pass. In our Veritas Media Coaching sessions, we underscore this point: as a rule of thumb, keep your comments in the here and now. Identify challenges, sure, but don’t box yourself into a potential outcome before it happens. But there is an exception to every communications rule, and in this case, it’s the useful doomsday scenario, i.e. “if we don’t get what I’m advocating, something really, really bad might result.” It’s a strategic communications play designed to apply enough pressure to achieve a desired outcome, and it’s exactly the message that Rob Ford was trying to send. But it’s HOW he said it that was the problem: “I do not want fares to go up ten cents. Hopefully, over the next few weeks, we can avoid that. As of now, unfortunately, there will be a ten cent fare increase.” By being so definitive, he generated a wave of headlines saying “Ford announces TTC hike” – completely contrary to his no-more-nickel-and-diming campaign message. Sure enough, within 24 hours, the city had squeezed enough out of the police budget to give the TTC enough to cancel the proposed hike, and Ford could take credit for saving the day. But even that had a whiff of scramble to it – how could things change so dramatically, so quickly? Right strategy, wrong execution.

FUMBLE – THE TUCSON BLAME GAME

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley:

In any communications around a crisis, it’s important not only to choose your words carefully, but also to be seen to be acting with the best of motives. A crisis is not about you – it’s about those who are really affected. And any effort to gain PR points is a very dangerous game indeed. So we turn, reluctantly, to the act of a clearly disturbed young man in Tucson who went on a rampage that killed six people, including nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green, and severely injured US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. It was, simply put, a tragedy and a crime. But then it became the subject of an unseemly game of political football. In the wake of the Jan. 8 shooting, it didn’t take long for commentators on the left and right of the US political spectrum to start airing their grievances and laying blame. A handful of Democrats and left-leaning pundits pointed accusing fingers at Republicans, Sarah Palin and Tea Party rhetoric for creating a hateful political climate that encouraged the kind of violence Jared Lee Loughner so grievously enacted. Much of the official Republican leadership did the smart thing and refrained from directly engaging those salvos. But not talk jock Rush Limbaugh, who charged (ridiculously) that Loughner had “the full support” of the Democratic Party. And not Palin. In a video statement, she lashed out against her accusers and accused them, in turn, of inciting hatred and violence. But she didn’t do herself any favours. By going on so long (nearly eight minutes) largely in her own defence, Palin managed to sound like she thought she was the injured party. Worse, she said her rivals were waging a campaign of “blood libel” against her – a huge gaffe, given that “blood libel” refers to a particularly vile piece of anti-Semitic folklore. Decidedly un-presidential. As Republican strategist Ed Rollins said afterwards, “She should have offered prayers and compassion for the victims and let it go at that. This is not about her.”

TOUCHDOWN – OBAMA’S TUCSON SPEECH

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley:

On the same subject, compare and contrast Palin’s video statement with President Barack Obama’s skillful address at the memorial service for victims of the Tucson shooting. A few things stood out. He spoke little of himself, except to deliver the news that after he went to visit Richards in her hospital room that morning, she opened her eyes for the first time. Second, he spoke in turn and at length about the victims and their families – he kept it about them. And third, he deftly handled the increasingly partisan debate about whose political rhetoric was more to blame for the shootings – first by simply dismissing rhetoric as a cause, and then by saying that “only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make them [the victims] proud.” He took the high road, and he offered a way forward – surely an effective stance for anyone in a leadership position. Small wonder Obama’s Tucson speech has been widely hailed as a defining moment in his presidency.