Just Do Something: While many PR pros counsel companies to provide “as much transparency as possible,” the concept remains more art than science. Just how much is as much as possible? Hold that thought. Originally we intended for this story to report about Nike, a seemingly socially progressive brand—except for claims of slave wages paid to those who make its athletic shoes in China and elsewhere—that again jettisoned a senior male executive without explanation or a whiff of transparency. Earlier in April, a pair of senior executives, including one, Nike brand president Trevor Edwards, who was the heir apparent to CEO Mark Parker, departed under the thick cloud of a vague memo (PRN, April 10). Another, Jayme Martin, VP and GM of global categories, was the next to go. No memo was issued there. Toward the end of last month, on April 19, another male executive, Greg Thompson, VP of express lane footwear, was gone with barely an explanation. Earlier in the week, Antoine Andrews, VP of diversity and inclusion, resigned. About Andrews, Nike said he’d engaged in “conduct inconsistent with Nike’s core values and against our code of conduct,” but added no direct allegations of misconduct were filed against Edwards.
...Silent Six: In all, six senior male executives are gone. And those are just the executives we know about. Still, Nike stuck to its guns and said almost nothing. Was an internal memo two news outlets, Wall St Journal and CNBC, ‘obtained,’ where HR chief Monique Matheson complained the company failed to make enough progress on diversifying its senior levels, meant to be enough transparency that the story would be over? Hard to say. What’s clear is it didn’t work. Instead journalists sensing blood in the water dug into these ousters and eventually cobbled together stories. The results were unkind to Nike. Stories described a male-dominant culture of sexual harassment, where deserving females were bypassed for top jobs. The media coverage, which was fairly heavy in the sports trades, eventually migrated to the mass media. The NY Times story of April 28 told of frustrated women organizing a survey of female employees about their life at Nike. A package of completed surveys landed on CEO Parker’s desk March 5, the Times says, and then male heads began to roll. At least this is what the Times says happened. By ignoring PR 101 and failing to offer more than perfunctory transparency, Nike almost was asking for trouble. The lesson: should you say nothing, others will write your story without your input. The results can be messy.
former Metro editor,
NY Times
...Doctor Heal Thyself: As we wrote above, this story was supposed to be about Nike’s cloudy ousters. Yet how could we not link it to the NY Times’ removal of Metro editor Wendell Jamieson? He too is gone without much explanation. We know there was an internal investigation, but about what? A Times article quotes Jamieson apologizing to colleagues for “my mistakes...and leaving under these circumstances.” But what are the circumstances? The Times refused to say to “protect the privacy of those involved.” Gosh, you’d think the organization that exposed Bill O’Reilly and Harvey Weinstein would value transparency. (At our press time both Nike and the NY Times advanced these stories. Nike promoted women to replace two of the departed executives and the NY Times ran a story with anonymous sources saying several women had filed harassment complaints against Jamieson.)
News Bits: You knew this was coming: a passenger filed suit against Southwest and the makers of the plane and engine from flight 1380, the fatal April 17 trip ( PRN, April 24). And this: Southwest said April 26 that Q1 revenue was off $50-$100 million due to fallout from 1380. The carrier’s fun-themed social media and TV marketing is off the table for the time being.
Growth:In its largest acquisition, Marketo acquired Bizible, a fellow provider of marketing performance management software. -- Diffusion PR unveiled a west coast office in LA, adding to its NY operation. – Cannabrand acquired Voyage Business Brokers Consulting. -- Caldwell VanRiper signed a strategic partnership with Found Search Marketing, a search-marketing agency. – Grasslands added an events department and hired Courtney Mathis and Sam Pendleton to lead it. – An interesting move from Rogers & Cowan, which formed a studio content development and production arm, Clickable Media Group.
EVP, Partner,
rbb Communications
People: Sometime Facebook critic and WhatsApp CEO and co-founder Jan Koum is leaving to enjoy non-tech pleasures. He sold WhatsApp to Facebook in ’14 for billions but recently criticized its data policy in the wake of Cambridge Analytica. He also allegedly was upset with Facebook’s strategy for WhatsApp that included using personal data. -- Congrats to nine new partners at rbb Communications: Abdul Muhammad II, chief digital officer; Jeanine Karp, VP; Josh Merkin, VP; Laura Guitar, EVP; Lisette Loughner, VP; Maite Velez-Couto, VP; Rashid Saker, director; Sandra Fine Ericson, SVP; and Shawn Warmstein, VP.. rbb also named EVP Srikant Ramaswami to lead its newly formed health advisory council. -- Hollywood Agency promoted Jeff Dillow to SVP. -- French/West/Vaughan said Rachel Wing has returned to the agency as a VP. It also hired John Moore as creative director.