When Ozzie Guillén, manager of the rebranded Miami Marlins, inserted the proverbial foot-in-mouth during an interview with TIME magazine, where he stated, “I love Fidel Castro,” I immediately began to question the Marlins’ management strategy.

I thought, “Clearly this guy has no understanding of local politics. Clearly he has no understanding of what so many of us lived through in a Fidel-Castro-Cuban regime. Clearly the Marlins management doesn’t necessarily know what it’s doing to the brand.” I wasn’t alone.

To give you some quick background: What Guillén said is highly offensive to many Hispanics of Cuban origin, especially to those who are older. Cubans did not come to the U.S. looking for a better job or a better economic opportunity. Many lawyers, doctors, engineers, journalists and professionals left their homes, careers and even families because of political oppression and the sheer lack of simple human rights — all attributed to Castro and his followers.

Just as recently as last month, during the Pope’s visit to Cuba, he reiterated how important it was to keep in mind human rights above all else in the island. He urged the Cuban people, “that you may strive to build a renewed and open society, a better society, one more worthy of humanity.”

Having been personally affected by this communist regime, I was taken aback upon hearing about Guillen’s remarks. The fact that he was suspended for five games for his comment didn’t seem like “enough” to me initially. Then, I thought, “How could the Marlins public relations team not have provided such important market-sensitive information?”

Continue reading " No Grand Slam for Miami Marlins’ PR Practices "

The crisis enveloping Penn State has taken the world by storm. In less than two weeks, it has become one of the most engrossing scandals in recent memory. As in most crises, the University’s response is being heavily dissected and debated among the commentariat.

We asked several respected college public relations professionals — those who manage on-campus crises in their daily work — for insight into the lessons the University’s response offers public relations professionals.

As we wrote last week in PRSAY, this situation is more than a mere PR crisis or a “PR catastrophe” (as The New York Times pegged it). It goes far beyond that, evoking issues of management and culture, morality and how big-time college athletics fits within higher education.

In short, this isn’t a PR issue; it’s a management issue. This does not showcase poor public relations; it reflects poor leadership.

Continue reading " Analysis: PR Lessons From The Penn State Crisis "

Editor’s note: Global Alliance Chairman Daniel Tisch, APR, Fellow CPRS, follows up on his previous PRSAY blog post about the public relations insights from the Occupy Wall Street movement with this post on four possible futures for a movement built through successful public relations.

This week’s media stories are filled with speculation about the future of the international movement ignited by the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations in September. The question is a compelling one: has the protest movement passed its peak, or does it have a “second act?”

It’s easy to see the media’s interest in this question; the narrative of rise, setback and either downfall or comeback is a familiar one — not just in news but also in literature and film. And setbacks often involve flashpoints — such as the tragic death of a Vancouver protestor last weekend. Such incidents, along with colder weather across the northern hemisphere, will give rise to debates about whether authorities should work toward an orderly shutdown of the protests.

I recently shared some brief thoughts with Reuters about the movement’s future, and it’s a topic that bears elaboration. Here are three possible directions for Occupy Wall Street.

Continue reading " The #Occupy Movement Owes Much of Its Success to PR "

Every day, public relations professionals help people understand the reasons why an organization says and does the things it says and does.

But one thing public relations professionals cannot help people understand, and should never have to, are an organization’s moral and legal failings.

Example: The ongoing crisis at Penn State, which entails its failure to report allegations of sexual abuse of minors by former Nittany Lions assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky, to the proper legal authorities. (Update, Nov. 10, 2011: Penn State fired Mr. Paterno and University President Graham Spanier Wednesday night.)

Already, the media and some in the PR industry have anointed this unspeakable tragedy an example of a “public relations catastrophe” (so says The New York Times) and a moment in which a well-known brand failed to properly understand the modern reputational challenges of the digital age.

It is none of that. It’s time we stop describing gross managerial missteps, operational failures, lying, cheating, fraud and, in this case, systematic legal and moral failings as a public relations _________ (insert “disaster,” “nightmare” or “debacle”). Frankly, a public relations disaster is trying to set the Guinness Record for the world’s largest Popsicle on a hot summer day.

Anyone who thinks public relations can be counted on to “sweep up after the parade” and serve in the role of savior for something as tragic and awful as the recent events at Penn State is fooling themselves. In the immortal words of Arthur W. Page, public relations is 90 percent what you do, and only 10 percent what you say.

There’s very little a public relations professional could say that would fix this mess.

Continue reading " Public Relations Won’t Fix Penn State’s Crisis "

“Occupy Wall Street” teaches PR lessons — and risks of rushing to judgment.

Walking past the “Occupy Wall Street” protest in New York City, as I did recently, it would be easy to dismiss its relatively small size, incoherent message and messengers who (for the most part) don’t look and sound like mainstream America. To do so would be a mistake. There’s a level of public relations sophistication at work here that could have unpredictable consequences.

Case in point: following the Oct. 1 arrest of some 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, a PR battle ensued:

• The protesters immediately claimed the police had tricked them by letting them onto the bridge where they could be arrested. This was reflected in the initial coverage of the event.
• The police responded that they had issued clear warnings for demonstrators to use the bridge’s walkway, not the roadway. The New York Times updated its online story to reflect this.
• On Oct. 2, as we’ve seen so often following clashes between police and protesters, “day-two” stories focused on the release of videos by both the police and protest organizers, each claiming they had acted properly.
• On Oct. 3, The Times found itself in the protest movement’s crosshairs, as a clever PR piece compared the newspaper’s initial protester-friendly lede (“After allowing them onto the bridge, the police cut off and arrested dozens. …”) with an update that ran 20 minutes later. (“In a tense showdown over the East River, police arrested hundreds … after they marched onto the bridge’s Brooklyn-bound roadway.”)

Continue reading " Of PR and Protest: ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ "