Crisis Management

It doesn’t take much for a brand to get swept up in a political firestorm it didn’t seek. Take Bumble Bee Tuna, for example. The legacy company for canned seafood and a lunchtime staple found itself front-and-center after President Donald Trump’s rally last night.  

This week the Big Ten Conference retracted its August decision to postpone the football season. While the plan to ensure students-athletes’ health appears to be well thought-out, the decision provokes plenty of questions, especially considering the opposite stance the conference took just a month ago. 

The House Transportation Committee report’s conclusions (Sept. 16) were unsurprising. The Boeing 737 Max 8 contained a system that overrode pilots’ control and plunged two of the aircraft downward, killing everyone aboard, 346 in all. Despite that unremarkable conclusion, there are a slew of PR takeaways.

No matter how you slice it, communication is a large part of the pandemic saga, at least that’s the way some communicators see it. The news today about HHS communicator Michael Caputo and Bob Woodward’s new book, with its revelations about the apparent discrepancy between the president’s private view and his public message, cement that view.

Similar to nearly all businesses, hospitals have had to adapt during the pandemic to succeed. This has put a premium on hospital communicators, who are applying a bevy of PR basics to the situation. Two senior directors at APCO Worldwide discuss the sector and how its insights can apply to communicators and business across industry.

19 years after 9/11, communicator Rob Densen believes the lessons for communicators from that fateful day can be applied to other life-changing crises, such as the pandemic. The basics of crisis communication, which include leaning on your values and treating your team well, have stood the test of time, he tells us.

Nobody enjoys having difficult conversations. Sometimes, as PR pros, we have difficult exchanges with those who pay our salary and can influence our career. Being direct, empathetic and solutions-oriented can help make such exchanges less difficult and, most important, help build trust and understanding.

A new model shows more than 400,000 Americans will die from COVID-19 by the start of 2021. That’s if Americans continue what they’re doing now regarding distancing, mask-wearing and hand-washing. Drs. Anthony Fauci and Sanjay Gupta believe Americans are growing weary of the mitigation message. That weariness is costing lives, they say.

Are there more toxic workplace cultures today or are we just hearing about them more? A PR pro-turned clinical psychologist has a theory. In any case, since communicators are charged with protecting the brand externally and being the voice for employees internally, they would be well served to make certain that corporate culture and conflict resolution are sound. The last place a PR pro wants company problems resolved is in the public square.

All we seem to hear about today are toxic workplaces. Ellen, McDonald’s, the Washington Football Team. What’s behind this spate of media reports and how can communicators protect their companies from being the subject of one of these stories?