News Bits: It’s very early, yet some people are pointing to President Trump’s August 21 prime-time speech on Afghanistan as evidence that his free-form communications style may have changed or at least been reigned in. The President seemed to stick to the text of his Afghanistan speech and his 21 tweets that day were relatively benign. Why the change from his August 15 press conference, where he equated white supremacist groups with those protesting against them in Charlottesville, VA? Those remarks resulted in denunciations from high-profile CEOs last week [see Katie Paine’s Image Patrol in this issue]. In addition, the country’s military leaders took the unusual step of wading into politics to blast the commander in chief’s remarks. Another potential factor in the president’s apparent change in communication style has a military flavor: It’s possible that retired general John Kelly, the new White House chief of staff, weighed in. Other factors could be the departure of chief strategist Stephen Bannon or the naming of interim communications chief Hope Hicks August 16. She replaces Anthony Scaramucci until a permanent communications director is named. Right after the Afghanistan speech, House Speaker Paul Ryan, appearing at a town hall, said the president “messed up” in his comments about Charlottesville. “People marching with Nazi slogans and racist signs are not ‘very fine people’…I just think he needs to do better and I think he just did…”
Taking a Powder, Again: If this next story sounds familiar, it should. It’s happened enough times that communicators at Johnson & Johnson likely have a boilerplate statement ready. A jury August 21 awarded a woman a substantial sum in a case where her lawyer claimed she’d contracted ovarian cancer after using Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder for four decades. The company plans to appeal. A few details are different in this case, though. The jury was in Los Angeles, not St. Louis, where several Baby Powder suits have been conducted, perhaps due to the Show-Me State’s favorable regulations on expert witnesses. At $147 million, it’s also the largest sum awarded in a Baby Powder case. Three months ago a VA woman was awarded $110 million when a St. Louis jury found for her against J&J. A trio of cases in 2016, all in St. Louis, provided nearly $200 million in awards, respectively. Reports have some 1,000 Baby Powder cases awaiting trial. In a statement, J&J claimed medical facts fail to show a link between ovarian cancer and its Baby Powder. Indeed, some suits have ended in J&J’s favor.
Growth:A pair of firms opened their fifth offices this week: 10Fold Communicationsopened its no. 5 in Denver and PAN opened its fifth in NY. Congrats to both.
People:PR analytics firm AirPR named Judy Luk-Smit VP, product (photo p. 1). She joins from goBalto. – Harman International, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, named Tom Mooney director of public affairs, a new position, based in D.C. Mooney was technology and innovation leader at Booz Allen Hamilton. – Congrats to PR News awardee Trista Morrison, named VP, communications, N. America, at Sobi. She was director of communications at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals.