The following article is an excerpt from PR NEWS' exclusive report, "The 12 Hottest (and 7 Not So Hot) PR campaigns of 1996."
The following review underscores how important reputation management is in this day and age. What we have here is an organization - ASCAP - which tarnished its own reputation when it decided to demand that the Girl Scouts pay licensing fees to perform American classics. PR NEWS examined the ASCAP issue by focusing on several criteria, including the effectiveness of its spokespeople and the media reaction.
Overview
Imagine a group of young Girl Scouts sitting around a fire at a summer camp in the mountains, eating S'mores and caroling "God Bless America" with pride. Imagine them forking over their tiny allowances to pay for the right to sing that song and other campfire favorites.
This is the image conjured by an August 1996 article in The Wall Street Journal. The story claimed the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the member-owned organization in New York responsible for collecting music royalties for artists and licensing music venues, was unfairly demanding Girl Scout camps pay licensing fees for the right to "perform" many classic American tunes, including Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" and Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land."
ASCAP claimed this national news story was invented and pushed by an "unholy alliance" of the American Restaurant Association (ARA) and the National Religious Broadcasters Association (NRBA), both of which are actively engaged in lobbying for legislation that would chip away at copyright protection for artists and composers. Bottom line: They don't want to pay to play.
Effectiveness of Spokespersons
As the media jumped onto the breaking story, ASCAP's executive leadership all but disappeared, including ASCAP's spokespersons, Ken Sunshine and CEO John Lo Frumento's son Peter, who both refused to take reporters' phone calls.
ASCAP's position on the matter was therefore not immediately clear and The Wall Street Journal was able to effectively stand by its story with relatively little opposition from ASCAP.
Repeated calls by PR NEWS to ASCAP's PR firm Sunshine Consultants, Inc. were not returned either.
Timeliness of Message
Sunshine Consultants did, however, issue a one-page news release clarifying what it characterized as "false" reports regarding their attempt to license the Girl Scouts of America.
"ASCAP has never sought, nor was it ever its intention, to license Girl Scouts singing around a campfire," read the statement.
ASCAP clarified that it had sought first-time licensing of the approximately 8,000 camps in the U.S., and that a mailing list of these facilities inadvertently included 13 camps operated by the Girl Scouts.
In fact, they noted, former ASCAP board member Irving Berlin, author of "God Bless America," signed over all royalties to that song to the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts of America in 1940. These royalties now are worth millions to the scouting organizations.
Impact on Customers/Members
Grammy Award-winning songwriter and performer Bill Danoff of Washington, D.C., the author of such hits as "Take Me Home Country Roads" and "Afternoon Delight," feels ASCAP was the victim of an orchestrated PR attack by the restaurant and religious broadcasters associations. But, he also said ASCAP may not have served its member-owners well in the Girl Scouts flap.
"If it's true what Lo Frumento said, that doesn't sound like an informed comment on his part," Danoff told us. "I think it would be good if ASCAP officials didn't say stupid things like that in public."
Danoff said ASCAP needs to do a better job at communicating with organizations it wishes to license because "people aren't always clear about what it is that they're actually paying for."
And what are licensees paying for? "They're paying to use my songs, which are my property," Danoff said.
Media Reaction
Among the many do's and don'ts in the art of crisis communications is the basic understanding that you should absolutely avoid openly criticizing the news media. Jouralists may sometimes be wrong and they may be imperfect, but they'll also remember that you said so.
Certainly Bob Dole learned this lesson the hard way when he lashed out at "the liberal media" during his unsuccessful 1996 presidential campaign.
On Sept. 30, 1996, a month after the Girl Scouts story made national news headlines, ASCAP president Marilyn Bergman addressed ASCAP members at the annual Country Awards Celebration in Nashville, telling them, "Just whose purpose is served by The Wall Street Journal, printing an article - biased, one-sided, filled with inaccuracies and quotes taken completely out of context?"
Perhaps a good question to raise, but negated by a pointless attack on a news outlet so many Americans respect.