The midterms are over, and communicators face pressure to choose: Advise brands to go silent and take no risks, or jump in with a point of view that feels right for the moment.
I've spent my career telling brands to stay out of politics unless they have a very good reason to get in. More recently, my company's experience in business and public affairs has proved something I hadn't fully realized before: banking a narrative off political news is surprisingly safe, even in a political culture where a single "wrong" phrase can make a brand go viral for all the wrong reasons.
Here are three ways for public relations professionals to use politics to secure positive post-midterm media coverage without causing self-inflicted injuries.
Target the Institution
Politics is about who wins, who loses and who gets blamed. Policy is about what actually changes, which gives brands a layup no matter how tough the defense.
Nobody blames a drug company for asking the Food and Drug Administration for approval or for promoting that approval in healthcare trade media. Merger announcements mention the Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission constantly, because the deal can't close without them. And everyone hates the Internal Revenue Service, so the only challenge there is finding something nice to say.
The same approach works when a brand wants to create change without alienating the politicians in charge. A client wanted to rebut the Department of Veterans Affairs' claim that it had improved veteran care. Since every administration makes that claim, some of our placements in political, veteran and national media reminded audiences of VA scandals from the eras of Presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The goal wasn't to attack the politicians but to use consistent failures to highlight the need for change.
Politics is the defender; policy is the open lane. Knowing the difference is how you score.
Make It About a Person
A healthcare client had a national policy peg but a crowded field: influential voices on Capitol Hill, in the industry and elsewhere were already shouting about the issue. The team built the campaign around a mother whose terminally ill son needed action from the FDA. That story earned local and national interviews, op-eds from local outlets to USA Today and a multi-platform social media campaign.
For all of the attention politics gets, it often boils down to people we trust, whose stories have no partisan agenda but do have plenty of love, passion and a need for a human solution.
This isn't easy, because a single slip-up can undermine the entire campaign. When identifying potential voices, do your research. Interview them thoroughly and review their digital presence. It's one thing for a mom to have an occasional political opinion. It's another for her to shout profanities in the middle of an interview or to demand that her health care policy op-ed include a treatise on the flatness of the Earth.
Follow the Money
When tariffs pushed beef prices into the headlines, our team partnered with Digital HQ to help a regenerative lamb farming company use the latest consumer price index data to explain how costly beef created opportunities for the lamb sector. Retail trade media jumped all over it, as did an industry newsletter and key social media accounts. A few days later, talking about the impact of trade and imports brought new coverage at other outlets. And all of it served the client's real goal: generating attention to and coverage of a new product announcement a week later.
Recurring economic data, like the CPI or the monthly jobs report, gives communicators a neutral, predictable peg that follows the money instead of taking sides. Consumers may disagree about tariffs, but they all buy groceries. Retailers may not like how imports affect their prices, but they all have to navigate them. Everyone spends money.
Some executives will be hesitant to step in this direction; our client certainly was. The team made sure both narratives were tight and on-message, spending a lot more time on two press releases than preferred. But the payoff justified every word.
The Election Is Over; Comms’ Job Is Just Starting
The end of the midterms brings a sigh of relief to Joe and Jane in the normal world, but it’s time for PR pros to roll their sleeves up. Brands should leave the trash talk to everyone else, choosing instead to understand what their audiences care about, find the connection to the news and make a case beyond this week’s election cycle.
There’s always a better story to tell than the political food fight. In today's media environment, finding that story is the way to win.
Dustin Siggins is Founder at Proven Media Solutions.