What NOT to do: Lesson 18... Mix Politics with Sports

So last week soccer officials from South Africa were set to host a peace conference to discuss the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The point of the conference was to discuss separating politics and sports in next year’s World Cup, the first ever to be held in Africa..

Well, things did not go according to plan. Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was denied a visa into the country because the government believed that he would cause negative publicity for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

However, that decision backfired on the South African government. Well since the Dalai Lama was not allowed to attend the event, others who were expected to attend refused. This ultimately led to the cancellation of the event.

Instead of lying about the situation, all the South African government had to do was be honest. Many believe that the cause of his denied visa was because of the politics of another country. China is responsible for thousands of jobs and millions of dollars (due to trade) in South Africa. Tibet and China have not been seeing eye to eye for quiet a while. So South Africa had no choice but to reject his visa.

As a PR practitioner what would you have done differently?

-Travis Francis

What NOT to do: Lesson 17... Don't be a global bully

Good day everyone.

This blog is not necessarily a PR no-no. This is actually a PR yes-yes :-). President Obama has made his international debute, and he has received an 'A' from many political commentators and journalists. He's doing what President Bush refused to do: acknowledge our faults and build friendly relationships with other countries.

The PR no-no is to be a global bully. No matter how powerful your country is, you can't go into other people's country and tell them what to do. You can't tell them, "If you're not on our side, then you're evil." Who's to make that judgment? Not you, especially if you fail to acknowledge your own faults and fail to be knowledgeable about other countries' cultures. For all you know, they can view your country as evil, which has been the case for the past eight years.

Pres. Obama has done a tremendous job acknowledging that the U.S. has done its share of wrongs, but he also stated that the current global crisis is not the U.S.'s fault alone. He has demonstrated one of the biggest principals in PR: transparency and honesty. Pres. Obama has demonstrated friendly leadership and dialogue, something the Bush Administration didn't understand. Maybe they didn't care. Who knows?

I think Pres. Obama is demonstrating great PR for the U.S. What do you think? Do you think you could have done better? Do you think he made any mistakes?

By: Marlon Williams

What NOT to do: Lesson 16... Another scandal

Reported March 30, Oprah Winfrey's Leadership Academy School for Girls has another sex scandal within less than two years. The first scandal involved adults, this time it involves the students.

It was reported on the nydailynews.com that a 15-year-old student was expelled because she allegedly preyed on another pupil and forced other pupils to lie to investigators. A letter to the student's parents said she was found guilty of having sexual contact with a student, harassment, and bullying.

After the first scandal, Winfrey fired the headmistress for sexually molesting girls at the school. But what does Winfrey do now?

In the world of PR, you never know when a crisis may arise. For Winfrey, however, it looks like she can't run a school without sex scandals. As a PR practitioner, what would you do to improve the image of the school and make it more appealing despite the sex scandals within two years?

- Marlon Williams

What Not to Do: Lesson 15...Lose trust of Consumers

With summer approaching, those of you who are actually going on vacation should be aware. Of what you may ask? Well it seems that some major hotels are using fake user reviews to lure in potential customers.

It has been revealed that on hotel review Web sites, major hotel companies are paying people to post positive remarks about themselves and negative comments about competitors. It is also being reported that PR firms and tourist offices are actually encouraging the hotels to send in fake reviews.

Online reviews are used by consumers because they expect fair comments from fellow users, not from those paid to sound cheery and upbeat. I know we have all been on sites where product reviews sound unbelievable. For example, I was recently shopping for a new phone. So as I searched the web for what others had to say I came upon this review, “I really love my new *name omitted*. It's so easy to use and so light. There’s really no other phone out there that can compare!”

Consumers are already “ify” about the reviews they read on the internet, but providing fake reviews can easily backfire and have a company labeled as being untrustworthy.

-Travis Francis

What Not to Do: Lesson 14...Ignore the Recession

So are there any sports fans here? Well if there are, I’m pretty sure you have heard about the Manny Ramirez saga. During contract negotiations, Ramirez turned down a two-year $45 million contract from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Even though Ramirez recently agreed to the contract, I know many of you are wondering, “What is the PR problem here?” Well the problem is, Dodger stadium recently just had a job fair with an estimated 4,500 job seekers in attendance. With the pay rates ranging from $10.90 an hour to $11.37 an hour.

When you have 4,500 people lined up for jobs that won’t even cover most of their monthly expenses, how could $45 million not be enough?

You also have to think about the thousands of fans who use to buy Dodger tickets and sat in the “nose bleeds”. No longer will they be there to support someone who is as money hungry as Ramirez. He’s not thinking about what’s going on in America right now, he’s just thinking about how much he THINKS he’s worth.

There weren’t any idiotic comments made from Ramirez because they were not necessary, the number of times he rejected the contracts said more than enough. Through these tough economic times, Ramirez basically provided a slap to the face to many Dodger fans that fell in love him during last season’s playoffs.

-Travis Francis

What NOT to do: Lesson 13... Incompetence is NOT an option

The week of March 16 was a mess for the Obama administration. The biggest mess was the AIG executive bonuses. The country was outraged, and the Obama administration found itself answering questions about an unethical mess that some say they are at fault.

The big players of this crisis is: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, and President Barack Obama. Most people probably understand why I'd say Tim Geithner and Chris Dodd, but Barack Obama? Yes, Barack Obama. Does anyone knows what's going on?

The citizens of this country are upset at AIG executives for receiving billions in bonuses, but I don't think they're the ones to blame. Yes, they were unethical in receiving the enormous bonuses, but it was all legal. The reason the bonuses were legit was because there was language in the stimulus plan that protected the executives right to receive those bonuses. The authors of that language: Treasury Sec. Geithner and Sen. Dodd, who, by the way, said he had no parts in constructing the language to protect the bonuses on March 18, and then said he did have some part in constructing it on March 19. His excuse was that he reluctantly agreed with the language, and he was forced by the Obama administration to do so. OK, one down, two to go.

Now we move on to the next guy in charge, Treasury Sec. Geithner who knew about the bonuses on Tuesday, March 10 and did not tell Pres. Obama until Thursday, March 12. Pres. Obama tried to take some of the heat off of Geithner by taking responsibility. However, Geithner now seems unprepared to handle such historic national crisis. Two down, one to go.

Now the question lies: what was the extent of Obama's knowledge about the protective language in the stimulus plan to give AIG executives those bonuses? Whether he knew a little or a lot, it shows incompetency on Obama's part because he's the president, and he should know what's going on. Being on top of things would decrease the "crisis management" that this administration has dealt with quite often since taking office in January. Three down, but who else is involved?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "an organization is the lengthened shadow of a man," which means someone has to be responsible and accountable. As a PR professional, what advice would you give to any of these three officials? What kind of language would you use to shift the focus of the citizens, the administration and the media? What new media tools would you use? Would you advise for someone to take the blame and be prepared to deal with it? Talk to me people!

By: Marlon Williams

What NOT to do: Lesson 12...Allow financial greed to drive your company

In a recent class discussion, my professor pointed out some of the evils in PR. Originally brought into the light by Rachel Maddow, on MSNBC, were some of the cover-ups committed by well known PR agency Burson-Marsteller. What many PR agencies like Burson-Marsteller would call "crisis communications" or "reputation management," I call cover-ups because of their immoral nature.

Far too often do I see media outlets abuse their responsibilities of agenda setting, gate keeping and framing, to turn a profit. Scandals and scams that should be brought into the light to protect the American and global public are covered up and made out to be something that they are not. Like Maddow and my professor pointed out; when members of Blackwater slaughtered 17 Iraqi civilians, or toy company, Spin Master, was found producing toys with harmful chemicals, Burson-Marsteller was there to "save the day."

A responsible PR agency and/or professional should be there to communicate the truth, whatever that truth may be, to the public. Not to spin scandal into profit.

If you ran your own PR firm, how hard do you think it would be to say "no" to immoral public relations. It may be easy to say it now, but imagine thousands to millions of dollars being offered. Is it still that easy?

-Gearey McLeod