Remember when Elizabeth Smart disappeared? Remember how the
authorities picked up handyman Richard Ricci and tossed him in
jail, where he died of an aneurysm? With wall-to-wall media
coverage of the Smart story for several months, it's hard to
forget.
But you probably don't remember Nancy Pomeroy, an independent PR
practitioner in Salt Lake City, who spoke on behalf of the Ricci
family.
Who would stick their hand into that hornet's nest?
Surprisingly, there are quite a few PR professionals who are
willing to step into controversial situations. Some do it out of
personal passion. Some do it because it's their job. Either way, it
is possible to provide PR for a controversial issue while still
keeping one's career intact. But there are several hurdles to
overcome.
"I had people coming to my circle of friends asking, 'What the
hell is she thinking?' because at the time everyone thought Richard
was guilty," Pomeroy says. But now, a couple of years later, "it
has given me a higher profile, if anything."
In Atlanta, meanwhile, Bo Spalding is pushing back the tide that
threatens to sink Marcus Dixon, a black high school football star
acquitted of raping a white classmate, who was nevertheless
sentenced to 10 years behind bars because the girl was underage
when the two had sex. "We started aggressively pitching the story
and it caught on like wildfire," says Spalding, a partner in the PR
firm Jackson Spalding, which is handling the issue as part of its
ongoing relationship with Dixon's law firm, McKenna, Long and
Aldridge. Once "HBO Real Sports" picked up the story, it quickly
spread through the national media. A Web site established by the PR
team, helpmarcus.com, has garnered more than 2 million hits.
The most obvious backlash has come in the form of an editorial
cartoon in the Rome News Tribune, suggesting that the agency was on
the case only because of Dixon's high-profile football success. "We
passed it around the office and that was pretty much the end of
it," Spalding says. "We feel that we are on the right side of this
one and we are very proud of the work we have done on this. We
haven't offended anyone that we would mind offending."
Meanwhile, the PR effort has generated tangible results, with
national exposure helping to drive donations to a trust fund that
will be used to help Dixon pay for college after prison as well as
help his family financially. (The worth of that fund has not been
disclosed.) Spalding remains on the case during the appeals phase,
coordinating all media contacts, organizing a press conference and
managing follow-up interviews.
Yet it's not just agencies that confront controversy. At the
nonprofit Marijuana Policy Project, for instance, controversy is
daily fare for Director of Communications Bruce Mirken. "Some of
the nuts and bolts are similar to those of more conventional PR.
You have to be able to write compelling press releases and find
news hooks that journalists will be interested in," he says. "But
the obstacles are a bit different. One thing that we run into a
lot, that I think is unique, is people simply not taking the issue
seriously."
Mirken recalls contacting CNN to discuss an event in Washington,
D.C., "and the person who answered the phone burst out laughing,
put me on hold for a minute, came back in a minute and said, 'Okay,
Mr. Marijuana, what can I do for you?'" But a savvy PR pro can
overcome that kind of resistance. "You do it with facts, with
accuracy, with being absolutely fanatical about detail. We don't
ever say anything that we can't prove. We can document everything
to the hilt. Nothing we put out has a typo or a comma out of
place," Mirken says.
At the same time, "reporters like sources who can tell them
things they don't know," he says. "A lot of people don't know, for
example, that federal law actually treats marijuana as being more
dangerous than cocaine, morphine and methamphetamine. We can almost
always suggest an angle that hasn't been reported." It also helps
to put a human face on the issue by providing the media with
patients who have benefited through the use of medicinal marijuana.
Why would a professional take on that kind of assignment? "I am
doing something that I very intensely believe in," Mirken says. "I
am 47 years old and I have no interest in doing something I don't
care about."
The same might be said of Mike Paul. His reputation management
agency, MGP & Associates, is doing pro bono work on behalf of a
group of pastors and church leaders in New York State, helping them
to oppose homosexual marriage. An Evangelical Christian, Paul says
he has no qualms about the possibility that he might lose clients
on account of such an account. "The fact is there are some clients
I will never have because of my faith. There are some issues I will
never work on because of my faith," Paul says. This approach helps
to drive all of Paul's decisions when it comes to taking on
controversial causes. "Right up front, you need to ask: Are we
willing to lose clients for this cause? That has to be on the table
immediately. If you are not doing that, you don't understand this
business well enough."
Forget about losing clients for a moment and ask yourself
whether the cause is worth dying for. Susan Tellem has already had
two death threats since getting involved in the Michael Jackson
saga, and the hostile e-mails continue to roll in each day. That
has not deterred her from doing all she can to speak out for
District Attorney Tom Sneddon (who is prosecuting the Jackson
case), and also on behalf on her own agency, Tellem Worldwide,
which came under intense fire once it was hired by the D.A.'s
office.
"Someone on the Jackson side started criticizing our firm,
saying we were putting spin on the case that jeopardized the jury
pool. There was a lot of negativity," Tellem says. The Associated
Press ran the criticism and soon other media were repeating the
quotes.
Tellem would not stand for it. She asked for a correction every
time the information appeared, and put corrections on her home Web
page in order to keep the media informed and the stories accurate.
"I felt it was important to correct these things and not just let
them sit out there," she says. "We took a proactive approach to
fixing the problems as we saw them. If we had just sat there and
taken it, I don't think we would have come out smelling like a
rose."
With that situation under control, Tellem started to repair the
damage from the D.A.'s first press conference, which had run on too
long and ended in what many deemed inappropriate behavior. "Our job
was not to media train him or to spin anything. Our job was just to
field this barrage of phone calls," Tellem says. "Now it has turned
around completely and we really have developed some very good
friendships with the media. It changed because we did what we said
we were going to do. We returned every phone call. We provided a
Q&A, which nobody had done before. We helped orchestrate a
press conference that went off without a hitch."
As for the death threats, this former police reserve officer is
not losing too much sleep. "But I do look over my shoulder every so
often," she says.
Contacts: Bruce Mirken, 415.668.6403, [email protected]; Mike Paul,
212.595.8500, [email protected];
Nancy Pomeroy, 801.224.4490, [email protected]; Bo Spalding,
404.724.2510, [email protected];
Susan M. Tellem, 310.479.6111, [email protected]
Rules of Engagement
When PR pros take on controversial causes, they can provide
direction to campaigns that may otherwise run a little roughshod.
There are a few special rules, though, depending on the causes:
- Accuracy: During a hot debate, accuracy is an absolute
must. - Timeliness: If it's controversial, you can bet the media will
be calling. Now more than ever, those calls have got to be returned
promptly. - Tenacity: There are few quick wins in the world of
controversial causes. If you get in, get in for the long haul. - Conviction: You're going to take heat from the other side. Why
sign on unless you believe in the cause?