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Tough Love with the Omniscient Pablo Pistachio
Dear Swami,
Leading up to Independence Day, President Yanukovych had his picture on hundreds of billboards suggesting that people should “Love
Yes.
But, he has his reasons. First, politicians actually think they are pretty and that by having their persona plastered bigger than life on billboards it is actually adding to the aesthetics of the cityscapes and the Ukrainian countryside.
They could be right. I mean, who would you rather see, Yanukovych, or one of those sexy billboards for Turkish tourism? On second thought, don’t answer that question.
But the president does have a problem. If graphic artists continue to air brush every molecule of skin, he will eventually disappear. Poof. Really, one kind of expects in next year’s ad for Independence Day he will look like a teenager.
Presidents appearing in self-serving ads congratulating
However, it really is silly. The Swami is all for boosting the ad industry, but the president who abstains from ego-centric gestures and says he’s spending the money instead for better school text books would have the makings of a real leader.
- Swami
Dear Swami,
Among Ukrainian’s major politicians, who would you say is the biggest PR disaster since independence?
- Political Reporter
Dear Political Reporter,
Former President Viktor Yushchenko was an unmitigated PR disaster, a fellow who had a gold mine of good will in his back pocket after the Orange Revolution and squandered it.
Guess the pocket had a hole in it.
But dog-gone-it, the other Viktor, President Yanukovych, isn’t exactly a PR maven. He walked out of a news conference the other day when he didn’t want to answer a question on whether gas prices would go up.
He had called the news briefing to make one statement, and reporters had the audacity to ask him about another topic.
Yanukovych and his advisors need to learn that all questions are answerable in a satisfactory fashion, and a “no comment” or walking out is not acceptable.
Suggested response to the question will gas prices go up?
“You know, that’s a question I think we all want to know the answer to—including me. And my administration is doing all it can to come up with reasonable solutions. But today, one topic I think might also interest all of you is…..”
In media training, we all it bridging to your messages. We call it “opening a window” when you have to shut a door. It’s not all that difficult.
- Swami
Dear Swami,
President Obama didn’t waver, he parsed. In other words, he navigated his comments to a more political shore. He was wrong, and the Swami thinks Obama knows he was wrong to back off a millimeter.
As more people think intelligently about the issue, the polls which show Americans are against such a Muslim center will gradually change and common sense and religious tolerance will win out.
If one thinks is un-American to have a Muslim center near New York’s ground zero of the Sept. 11, 2001 tragedy, then logic suggests no Christian church should be located near an American Olympic site.
This, of course, is hogwash. The American people will eventually get it right except for a few wing nuts whose elevators are permanently parked on mezzanine level.
Dear Swami,
Has the press release out-lived its usefulness? Is the press release as we know it dead?
--PR student
Dear PR student,
The press release has a faint heartbeat. But the disease, a sort of sclerosis of the “we’ve always done it this way” gland, is debilitating at best, fatal at worst.
The argument, however, should not be about the press release’s form or the way it is delivered. It should be about content of the release.
The argument we hear today is that the press release is a thing of the past because of new and modern ways of delivery in the social media age.
Any idiot acquainted with
When Ivy Lee did the first press release for John D. Rockefeller No. 1 in 1906, it was probably brilliant. But by the time I worked for Rockefeller No. 4 some 80 years later, the press release was, or should have been, an anachronism.
Today most press releases are written by PR firms or in-house PR people or—much worse, lawyers—for the benefit of the company and its leadership and not for the benefit of the journalist.
Somewhere along the way, we all took a wrong turn and got things backassword. The press release should be merely a guide for the journalist and it should be elegantly concise.
Today an average press release might run to 400-600 words. I got news for you buddy, the Financial Times won’t take a story over 300 words unless the headline is WORLD COMING TO AN END.
Instead of serving as a basic roadmap to a story, press releases today are loaded down with platitudes, position statements and self-serving quotes designed to make the bosses feel good.
These are not a press release make. These are rose buds tossed into the wind.
Dear Swami,
What do you do with employees who come in sick?
If they come in with something like the Black Plague or Typhoid I would send them home and disinfect the office. But, if it is a mere sniffle, I say, “Hey, what’s a few minor airborne diseases among friends.”
I am exaggerating for effect here. I hope you can see that.
But really, I have had people with a slight cough one day who predicted they would be sick for the entire next week, as if they were the Swami. It is amazing, though, how easy it is to tell truly ill people who should be at home from the goldbrickers.
Most bosses have heard it all. I can’t work today boss because the snow covered up parking places and I can’t find a space (A true excuse). Or, with this hot weather, where I work is too hot. (Ever heard of a fan?)
A good boss will show some slack and trust the word of an employee on whether he or she is sick. In such situations the benefit of the doubt should always go to the employee.
However, my suggestion to the alleged sick person is 1) If able, try to get a little work done at home; 2) Stay at home even if you have a miraculous recovery when a friend asks you out, and 3) Stay off Farmville on Facebook.
--Swami
Tough Love with the Omniscient Pablo PistachioWe had a news conference the other day, and though my boss had something important to say, he didn't get quoted as much as the other company on the platform.
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