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Archive for May, 2010

Beyond Pathetic

By: Stephen Dishart on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 11:15 am

BP’s public relations blunders in mismanaging the massive Deepwater Horizon oil blowout will be a lesson for generations of professional communicators. The firm’s public response in the wake of the disaster will serve as the antithesis to the positive story of Johnson & Johnson and its handling of the Tylenol case. PR aside, its attack on the ocean with toxic dispersants is downright deadly; maybe even to BP. The J&J quick, open, honest response to the tragic deaths caused in 1982 by cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules has been recognized for decades as the right way to handle a tragic accident. BP’s slow, ...

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“Strategic Brinksmanship”

By: Robert W. Grupp on Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 10:27 am

I’ve been reminded over past days how truth and accuracy in information are under assault – and of the obligation that each of us has to fight back. Harris Diamond, CEO of Weber Shandwick, characterized the situation in a commencement speech: “The new paradigm holds that everything is opinion, everything is relative, and everything is spin. Information is in the eye of the communicator. The assumption today seems to be that since no information is fully accurate; all information is up for grabs.” Diamond made the remarks to the spring 2010 graduating class at the USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism. ...

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