Trump Card? There are times when you wonder whether a communicator was in the room when the crafting of a message was discussed—or if a PR person was present, whether or not the legal team overpowered her/him. The most recent time before this past weekend was during early April 2017, when a Pepsi commercial that featured Kendall Jenner was denounced for its tone-deafness. Just days later, Dr. David Dao was shown in several videos being dragged from a United Airlines Expressaircraft. You likely remember how inept the initial response the next day from United CEO Oscar Munoz was; he almost seemed to justify the forced removal of Dr. Dao. Again, you wondered, was there a PR person in the room when Munoz’s initial message was written? Ditto this past weekend with acclaimed actor/director Kevin Spacey. On Oct. 29 BuzzFeed reported Spacey sexually harassed actor Anthony Rapp in 1986, when Rapp was a minor. Spacey’s response, later that day on Twitter, was seen as ineffective. The two-paragraph statement begins well enough. Spacey notes he was “beyond horrified” to hear the story. It continues, “I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior…” The actor’s memory lapse was one issue. The larger issue, though, is the feeling that Spacey, who plays nefarious President Francis Underwood on Netflix’s hit series House of Cards, tried to pivot, à la real-life President Donald Trump. In what was seen as an attempt to deflect from the harassment allegation, Spacey offers a competing story, revealing publicly for the first time that he’s been bisexual and now he chooses “to live as a gay man. I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behavior.” You’d like to say Spacey missed a PR lesson that brands know: The internet can be an unforgiving critic to less-than-effective apologies, especially in this Harvey Weinstein-charged moment. But Pepsi and United didn’t seem to have absorbed that lesson back in April, did they? Meanwhile Netflix, which expressed dismay over the alleged Spacey incident, said late Oct. 30 that five-time Emmy nominee House of Cards will end its run this season, its sixth. It denied the Spacey scandal was related to the series ending.
journalist
A Better Apology: Spacey might have benefited from reading the clear, apologetic mea culpa journalist Mark Halperin issued Oct. 27. With some dozen harassment claims against him, Halperin begins directly: “I am profoundly sorry for the pain and anguish I have caused by my past actions. I apologize sincerely to the women I mistreated.” While he contends some of the allegations against him “are not true…I realize that is a small point in the scheme of things…I know I can never do enough to make up for the harm I caused.” Halperin was axed from a book deal with Penguin Press, an HBO project based on the book, his Showtime series The Circus and regular analyst gigs at NBC and MSNBC. It’s said that communicators, who work throughout an enterprise, are well placed to sniff out where a crisis may be brewing. The lesson seems clear: Act or your brand might pay later. Also, if something seems amiss, it might be wise to huddle with HR.
Popped: Seems we could write about nothing but apologies this week. Kellogg’s took an expeditious route Oct. 25, apologizing for art that offended on boxes of Corn Pops cereal. The art portrayed pops as people in a shopping mall. The sole pop with a brown face was the mall’s janitor. Responding within 5 hours to complaints on Twitter, the brand tweeted, “Kellogg is committed to diversity & inclusion. We did not intend to offend—we apologize. The artwork is updated & will be in stores soon.”
Platform Prater: Ad sales at Snapchat and Instagram rose 73% and 55%, respectively, in Q3 due to offline features and video, a 4C study says. – Ahead of hearings on Capitol Hill this week, Facebook said it would take steps to make its role in political advertising more transparent.
Growth: C-leveled’s Jeff Lizik acquired Z Brand Group, the digital marketing services firm. – Former Business Wire president Gregg Castano formed Castano Communications Consulting, LLC, based in Norwalk, CT.
VP, Brandware PR
People: Edelman named APCO’s D.C. managing director Lisa Osborne Ross president of its D.C. office. She succeeds Rob Rehg, who becomes chair of Edelman’s U.S. public affairs practice. Prior to APCO, Osborne Ross served in the Clinton administration and had a 15-year career at Ogilvy. – Brandware PR named Nichole Mrasek VP and and automotive practice leader. – Rubenstein scored Kristian Nairn (Hodor from HBO’s Game of Thrones) to appear on its float during NY’s Village Halloween Parade tonight.