Early in my PR career, I worked on local, statewide and U.S. presidential campaigns before joining Burson-Marsteller, where as a senior VP/senior counselor I traveled with high-ranking foreign government officials as a media advisor.
That political experience resulted in several lessons learned that are applicable to non-political PR situations and crises as well. Most PR practitioners will never work on political campaigns, but they can still extract valuable lessons from following political happenings to be used in corporate, brand and PR crises beyond the political realm.
Don’t Dodge the Media
In 2016, when former U.S. Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was constantly criticized by the media for not being available for interviews, it was clear that she should change her tactics and make herself more available to meet the press. I recommended the taking the following action:
- Hold a lengthy press conference during which she would answer all reporters’ questions.
- Go on friendly TV talk shows and answer the hosts’ questions.
- Make herself more available to the public.
Clinton did not do so, and she lost the election to former President Donald Trump. If she had made more frequent media appearances, would it have changed the outcome? We’ll never know. But what we do know is that it couldn’t have hurt.
Lesson to apply to non-political accounts: Protecting a CEO or company president during a PR crisis by limiting media appearances creates an atmosphere of distrust by the media and public.
Avoid Gatekeeping
Substitute the name Biden for Clinton, and—until very recently, after President Joe Biden announced he was leaving the 2024 Presidential race—the same scenario was playing out. For more than a year, there had been reports that the president was not mentally stable and that his staff was protecting him by limiting his media appearances. It was only after his disastrous public debate and polls showing that Trump was increasing his lead over the president that Biden revved up his media interviews.
But he waited too long to do so. By not making himself more frequently available to the media during his presidency, his insistence that “it was just one bad night” did not convince the media, politicians of his own party or the public that it was a rare occurrence.
Lesson that can apply to non-political accounts: Journalists have long criticized PR people for acting as gatekeepers to high-level executives. In my view, PR practitioners should not impose such limits. When a reporter requests an interview with an executive, the PR person should always attempt to arrange it. Limiting media exposure to an executive creates the appearance of a cover-up, which was precisely what former President Trump and his colleagues insisted it was.
Don’t Muddle the Message
Biden’s message during his 2020 campaign was that he would unite the country. That was a message point that worked. However, after he was sworn in as president, he advocated policies that made the divide between Democrats and Republicans greater.
As a result, the one message point that helped elect him was no longer relevant, and many different message points were needed to communicate all the policies he advocated for. The multiple messages emphasized by President Biden is akin to those PR people who shotgun a pitch to hundreds of journalists, hoping that a few might be interested—instead of tailoring and targeting a pitch to specific journalists.
Conversely, Trump mainly campaigned on four message points—immigration, crime, the alleged criminality of Biden and Biden's mental capacity—using the advertising technique of repeating the same commercials hundreds of times in hopes that consumers will eventually believe the message.
Lesson that can apply to non-political accounts: Message points should be emphasized, whether advocating for a corporate policy, writing a speech or introducing a new product, but they should be limited to the most important ones—and those should be emphasized continually.
Arthur Solomon was an SVP/senior counselor at Burson-Marsteller, responsible for restructuring, managing and playing key roles in significant national and international sports and non-sports programs. He also traveled internationally as a media adviser to high-ranking government officials.