Chair, Federal Reserve
News Bits: Attention marketers, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is pushing back against robocalls, the leading source of consumer complaints to the commission, the Wall St Journal reports. The FCC July 13 opened a proceeding expected to lead to a system where telecommunications carriers will be able to authenticate a call’s origin before completing it. That’s intended to halt spoofing, the practice where a robocall generates a fake phone number so it appears the call is coming from a local number, which increases chances that the call will be answered. More than 2 billion robocalls are made monthly in the U.S., says YouMail. – The stench from Wells Fargo’s bogus credit card scandal lingers. During a Senate Banking Committee hearing July 13, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said behavior that allowed more than 2 million bogus credit card accounts to be established “was egregious and unacceptable.” While Yellen said the Fed had taken “actions” and continues to investigate Wells Fargo, she provided no details. During the hearing the bank’s biggest critic, Senator Elizabeth Warren(D-MA), urged Yellen to remove all 12 Wells Fargo board members in place when the scandal unfurled. Yellen reserved the right to do so “if it proves appropriate.” In a statement, the bank said it’s taken “many actions in response” to its previously “unacceptable sales practices.” Wells Fargo shares are up less than 1% this year, “vastly underperforming” stocks of its peers, CNBC says. – A Washington state high school student spotted a Washington Post photo that when enlarged revealed the phone number of press-averse Defense Secretary James Mattis. The student, Teddy Fischer, called the SecDef seeking an interview for his school newspaper. Mattis said yes. The result was a wide-ranging 45-minute dialogue. PR lesson 1: You have to ask. PR lesson 2: Tailor your approach. Fischer, his journalism classmates and a teacher spent two weeks shaping questions for Mattis that would appeal to fellow students. – Savvy PR pros and journalists know to proofread everything. That’s getting tougher with heavier workloads and 24/7 news cycles, even at the Wall St Journal. As part of its WSJ2020 reorg, WSJ will “revamp the editing process to publish stories more quickly, by reducing the number of hands a story passes through” and the number of stories published, it says. – APCO Worldwide reaffirmed its commitment to independence by acquiring new capital through buyouts of minority shareholders with the support of Citibank and Monroe Capital, founder/exec chair Margery Kraus said July 12. The arrangement also provides potential for additional capital, which APCO can use for growth, acquisition and innovation, it added.
PR in Plane Sight: Another day, another airline PR flub. Until recently, the Spanish airline Iberia was requiring women who applied for cabin-crew jobs to submit to a pregnancy test. Once the practice was discovered, Iberia accepted its punishment: a fine of $28,000, El Pais reports. The airline also apologized, a good PR move. Unfortunately, its apology attempted to justify the pregnancy tests. The apology noted the airline recently had hired five pregnant women, so, it claimed, Iberia had not discriminated against pregnant applicants. The apology also said Iberia was merely trying to shield pregnant candidates from “facing any risks.” Pregnancy tests for job applicants are standard in Spain, the airline added. Not so, Spain’s minister of health says. Is it a surprise social media whacked Iberia hard for all this? – Pardon us for piling on the airlines, but these are teachable moments. A pair of wheelchair-bound passengers traveling separately was denied access to a July 8 flight bound for Singapore from Australia. The airline, Scoot of Singapore, a budget-priced carrier, refused carriage because the two lacked able-bodied caregivers to accompany them. Both passengers had phoned the airline earlier and were told they could board the flight unaccompanied. (OK, that’s an integration issue—get ground operations to coordinate with the customer service center.) There’s more: Besides being shunted aside, the two were livid since Scoot ground personnel refused to address them. (Seems like a bad PR move there.) Instead, airport personnel relayed Scoot’s refusal: Its planes lack aisle chairs, which are used to accommodate wheelchair passengers. Scoot later issued an apology in the correct tone. (Good PR.) Yet it stood by its policy of refusing carriage to an unaccompanied passenger in a wheelchair. (Not-so-good PR.) “As part of Scoot’s commitment to ensuring the safety and well-being of our guests, we have…policies for guests who require special assistance…we will also be reviewing our process to avoid a recurrence of such incidents,” the apology says. Sounds good, except News.com.au reports Australian law prohibits airlines from discriminating against passengers with disabilities.
People: Congrats to recent PR News interviewee/MillerCoors CCO Pete Marino ( PRN, June 26 and July 10) on adding president, Tenth & Blake, the company’s craft and import unit, to his role. -- Dix & Eaton named Brady Cohen chief digital officer. Previously he led digital customer marketing at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.