Week in and week out, I and thousands of others in the PR field look to PRWeek to tell us how companies and nonprofits respond to a variety of crises and PR problems. This week, it was the newspaper’s turn to be embroiled in controversy and trouble. Online marking expert BL Ochman blogged about the nightmare she endured when… Read More
crisis communications
Embarrassing a reporter during an interview can backfire
When you’re doing a media interview and the reporter asks you a question you’d rather not answer, never say “no comment.” The only thing that’s worse than that response is trying to embarrass the reporter by asking an unrelated question so preposterous that it’s designed to throw him off guard. People who do that usually end up… Read More
Dirty hotel glasses story on D.C. radio show today
Thanks to Publicity Hound Natasha Henry, a writer for the Tower Federal Credit Union in Laurel, Maryland, for letting me know that the story on dirty hotel glasses, which I wrote about several weeks ago, was featured this morning on “The Steve Harvey Morning Show” on 96.3 WHUR-FM in Washington, D.C. “It’s interesting to see how fast this story is getting… Read More
Dirty hotel glasses: Fodder for more TV I-team stories
More Publicity Hounds have responded to the items you’ve read here and here, about the Atlanta TV station’s I-team report on dirty hotel glasses, than any other item in recently memory. An observation: I half-expected the PR departments at Embassy Suites, Sheraton Suites and the Holiday Inn in Atlanta to email me and explain improvements they’ve made… Read More
‘Dirty hotel glasses’ contest winner
Next time the Sheraton Suites, Embassy Suites or Holiday Inn hotel chains are looking for a PR spokesperson, they should choose the winning candidate from among Publicity Hounds who read my newsletter, “Craigslist: A Valuable Publicity Tool.” Last week, I told you about the video produced by an Atlanta TV station that took its hidden cameras… Read More
I-team story on dirty hotel glasses: How would you respond?
OK, Hounds. Let’s see you match wits with the crisis counselors. Watch this four-and-a-half-minute video, an I-team investigation by a TV station in Atlanta, Georgia, that shows the unsanitary way that three local hotels clean dirty drinking glasses and coffee cups. The team took hidden cameras into guest rooms at three major hotels—Embassy Suites, Holiday Inn and Sheraton… Read More
Oprah crisis: Topic of my first blog for Huffington Post
“What CEOs Can Learn from Oprah’s Sex Abuse Scandal” is my first contribution as a blogger for the Huffington Post. They posted it it under both Business and Entertainment. I elaborated on an item I wrote here, giving Oprah high marks for managing the sex abuse scandal at her $40 million academy for girls in South Africa so thoroughly that she left… Read More
Oprah scandal: A lesson in crisis management and a correction
Please note the correction in the seventh paragraph of the post below, which was brought to my attention today, October 4, 2008 when a reporter from People magazine called me for a comment regarding this story. The story states that Oprah’s former headmistress has filed a defamation suit against Oprah, the Huffington Post, and me.… Read More
FEMA’s phony press conference a PR disaster
Talk about a PR disaster. FEMA, the federal disaster agency, created its own when it staged a phony press conference last week in which FEMA employees posed as reporters and threw soft-ball questions at agency leaders so they could tell us what a good job they were doing at the California fires. During yesterday’s commentary on “Face the… Read More
Ellen DeGeneres could have averted a PR crisis
If only Publicity Hound Joni Hubred-Golden could have been around to help avert a PR disaster for Ellen DeGeneres and the dog rescue group Moms and Mutts. Ellen, you may have heard, adopted a terrier mix dog named Iggy from the nonprofit dog rescue group Moms and Mutts. When the dog didn’t get along with her cats, she… Read More