Are They Really This Stupid? Air Force One's Not So Excellent Day Out

Air Force One's dramatic and fright-inspiring flyover of Manhattan yesterday was supposed to be for "publicity purposes," according to The New York Times.

It worked.

Follow-up stories today will probably reveal that officials kept the flyover a secret from the public -- in fact, even from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- so that the airplane wouldn't become a target. I can't imagine why else they would insist on such secrecy, but I have to ask, "A target for what?" The bad guys aren't interested in taking down an empty plane -- where's the drama in that? They like their airplanes full of innocent people.

I realize that many non-New Yorkers, particularly those incapable of empathy, have no sense of the terror and trauma caused by the September 11, 2001, attacks. For some, if you haven't lived through it yourself, you can't imagine what it must have been like. But does this describe the D.C. people who told the NYC officials they couldn't notify the public of this highly unusual and exceptionally dramatic flyover? D.C. experienced its fair share of trauma on September 11 so we should be able to expect them to "get it" more than we could from knuckleheads in any other part of the country.

This is yet another reminder -- you've read them here before and I'll keep posting them -- of the importance of communicating with all constituents or stakeholders. There is no excuse for traumatizing New York City's residents and workers. If you can't let them know in advance, then don't stage the photo opportunity. The backlash generated by the buzz just isn't worth the photos.

Tips for Talking to the Press in a Crisis

I recently hired crisis communications specialist Jonathan Bernstein to provide crisis media training to clients. We addressed how to handle interviews in general but focused on what to do when it's a bad news situation.

Here's some of what Jonathan shared with the group regarding how to answer questions. Some of it is counter-intuitive to those who haven't done many interviews before:

1. Attempt to get 3 good messages out during any interview. What do you want people to remember from the interview?
2. The goal of any interview is not to answer the reporter’s questions but to use them as opportunities to deliver your message.
3. Remember when answering questions that your ultimate audience is your client or customer.
4. Always answer the question you wish they asked, not the question that was actually asked. “Bridge” to your message by saying, “That’s a good question but it’s important to understand …” or “Before I answer that, I’d like to say…” Use politicians as your role models.
5. Before answering the reporter’s question, state your key message first, then respond to the question. When it's a TV interview, you don’t want the producer to have to dig for your message when editing the piece.
6. Say what you did, not what you didn’t do. Bad: “We did nothing wrong.” Good: “We did everything right.

Sign up for Jonathan's Crisis Manager newsletter at http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/.

For the UC Students: The 10 Truisms

I was privileged to be the guest speaker at the annual public relations/journalism awards event for the Raymond Simon Institute for Public Relations at my alma mater, Utica College. That's "Uncle Ray" on the left. Known in the field as the father of public relations education, Uncle Ray founded the program in 1949 and while he no longer teaches, he's still a major influence on the program and on people like me, who were PR "Simonized" in college. I remain his Number One Fan.

Uncle Ray presented me with the Outstanding Public Relations/Journalism Alumna award for 2009. I was particularly touched by his obvious pride -- I am still the teacher's pet!

14 remarkable students won awards ($$!) that morning. I was able to get to know many of the the day before, as I taught two classes and met with several PRSSA members after class. I was blown away by their accomplishments and maturity. They inspired the advice I shared that morning -- and one of the parents attending asked me to post my remarks online. So, my new Facebook friends, here they are, my top 10 truisms for success:

1. You have so much potential. Don’t limit yourself.
2. You can do anything. Any – thing. You can always find your way around, over, or under an obstacle. Trust me on this.
3. Set goals. Create a plan to meet those goals. Be flexible and revise as needed.
4. Move away from home. Get a roommate to make it affordable. Get 2 roommates. Push yourself.
5. Be positive and optimistic.
6. Avoid negative or toxic people. They will suck the life out of you.
7. Hang around with people who are already where you want to be. They will challenge you to achieve their level.
8. Respect the secretaries. They are awesome people. And they can make or break you.
9. Don’t burn bridges.
10. Evaluate yourself according to your own values, not those of anyone else.

And one more for good measure: Thing big. B. I. G. BIG. If you always think small, you will only experience small accomplishments and will always wonder, “What if?”

Congratulations to all of you! You should be very proud of yourselves -- and how wonderful that the RSI has recognized and rewarded your hard work.

And remember . . . Facebook me!

May 15 is Deadline for Platinum PR Awards

While most of us see the PRSA Silver Anvil awards as the Oscars of the public relations profession, there are several other competitions that also recognize communications excellence,including the Platinum PR Awards offered by PR News.

I like the range of categories offered by this competition -- it combines PRSA's Silver Anvil awards for programs and its Bronze Anvil competition for tactics -- and adds to the entry categories, too. The Platinum PR Awards recognize excellence in categories ranging from word-of-mouth campaigns to satellite media tours to crisis management.

Enter by May 15. As I've noted here before, don't waste your time and money entering mediocre work. These awards programs are highly competitive and represent the best of the best. Ask yourself if your results or creativity truly exceeded reasonable expectations. If they did -- if everybody's talking about your project -- then enter. Be thoughtful as you create your entry, making certain that you communicate clearly and effectively what made your entry superior or successful. Follow the required format or run the risk of being disqualified because you didn't read the instructions.

Finally, feel free to ask me questions. I've been a Silver and Bronze Anvil judge and have a sense of what's outstanding and what isn't.

Good luck!

Use Your Words

Just for fun...here are the winners of the Washington Post's Mensa invitational. These are so funny that I haven't bothered to make sure that the Post actually does sponsor such a competition -- who cares? All that counts is that some of these made me laugh out loud!

Which one is your favorite?

The newspaper asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are the winners:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus : A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxicaton : Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation : Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone ( n..): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy : Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti : Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis : A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon : It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido : All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.) : Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

The Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

And the winners are:

1. Coffee , n. The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted , adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. Abdicate , v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade , v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly , adj. Impotent.
6. Negligent , adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. Lymph , v. To walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle , n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence , n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash , n. A rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle , n. A humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude , n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon , n.. A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster , n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism , n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent , n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewishmen.

It's Not a News Release if There's No News in It

There's no question that the news/press release is evolving as a media relations tool. But there's also no question that no matter what you call it, or how you present or distribute it, it must:

• 1. Contain news or useful information
• 2. Be distributed in a format that makes the content easy to use

I like to use my inbox for examples that illustrate these lessons; today's inbox included a brief cover note with a PDF attachment. (Let's just skip past the "no attachments" rule.) Because I always instruct those I'm mentoring to present their news materials in a format that's easy to copy and paste -- which doesn't describe a PDF file -- I opened the attachment. I wanted to see how bad it was.

It was really bad.

I'm not sure what to call it, but it wasn't the promised "news release." Maybe it was an ad. Maybe it was a flyer. Maybe it was sales collateral. I'm not sure.

The attachment was for a well-known manufacturer of brand name home power tools, so I was extra surprised at how useless it was. (I have higher standards for companies with bigger publicity budgets.)

It was a highly designed collage of seriously-Photoshopped photos of six products. Under each photo was a description of the tool, what it does, and its price. I don't know which products are new. I don't know what makes any of these products different from or better than their competitors. And I don't know what the publicist expects me to do with the short product descriptions -- not that it matters. I don't write about that stuff.

How usable is the content? Not usable at all. I can't right click and save the product photos. I wouldn't be able to use them, either, because of the visual enhancements -- the products are artificially highlighted so they stand out against the environment they're photographed against. The text can't be copied or pasted either -- which is typical of PDFs -- but it clearly wasn't written for editorial purposes. At best, the text might get a journalist thinking about a product category round-up piece. At best. And even that forces me to think too much.

So, publicist at the bigname company, if you want me to start thinking of articles I can write around your products, send me a pitch letter with article idea suggestions. If you want to send me a news release, send me news in a text format that I can copy and paste. And if you want to send me sales collateral, as you've done here, take me off your distribution list. I don't like to waste anyone's time -- yours or mine.

Do Newspapers' Woes Present PR Opportunities?

As newspapers struggle to keep publishing, I have to wonder if the situation opens more doors for publicists. My daily is a Gannett paper; Gannett has ordered weeklong unpaid furloughs for staffers. Fewer people at the newspaper office can mean fewer journalists cranking out stories each day. And yet, the newspaper still needs content, right?

My newspaper recently added a weekly column on spirituality in the Living section; it is written by a member of the community. Whatever she's paid -- if anything -- doesn't come close to the paycheck of a staff writer. Yesterday, the paper ran a large feature on a local TV personality's favorite books. The byline was "staff reports" but the staff component was probably just the two-sentence intro and the time it took to e-mail the anchorwoman with the request and copy and paste her response into the system. See the pattern?

It seems to me that my newspaper -- and probably yours -- is probably more open than ever to content from people who aren't on staff. It has to be relevant, interesting and well-written to be considered -- for sure -- and if you can provide that in a journalistic style, then you might have an opportunity to communicate your message in a highly effective way.

Give it some thought. Maybe you can help keep my daily -- and yours -- from disappearing.