Last week this video clip (above) from the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC calling global PR consultancy Burson-Marsteller (BM) “the PR firm from hell” did its rounds across the Internet. According to the video, BM was hired by AIG, who has taken government bailouts, to spruce up its corporate image. The producers of the show dug up lots of history about the firm and eluded to the fact that BM was an expert on covering up “evil”.
Clearly this is bad for any company, let alone a PR firm specialising in corporate image protection. When that video passed by me, I thought that was it. The damage was done and it’s time to pick up the pieces. But amazingly, round two (below) is currently making its rounds, with the help of YouTube, simply because BM’s CEO accused Rachel of getting her facts wrong.
This PR fiasco made me realise that the social web truly empowers the media. Before the days of YouTube, it would be very unlikely that we in Asia would get to watch a clip like this and thus would not have a negative perception of the global firm. The Internet brings every story of bad reputation within a click from anyone. PR Watch is a good example of what’s been going wrong in the world of PR.
Filed under: Marketing, Social Media
Everything on the Internet today is available infinium – we in PR must remember this – if I think aloud PR budgets are usually smaller than Ad Budgets so what has AIG been spending in Advertising ?
Spot on Andrew. I believe a lot of offices in Asia will begin to experience the ripple effect of their foreign counterparts’ bad publicity and vise versa.
Oh come on. Almost every large PR company, from H&K to Fleishman, has performed some really bastard nefarious spin.
Please let’s not tout PR companies as “corporate image protection” — as if a corporate image is not a confabulation dreamed up by PR and marketeers to sell the public that they represent the interests of society. They represent the corporate, and they appear to be good for society when it fits them to be so.
PR agencies make money swaying opinions. Period. Perhaps the thing about BM was that their work was too public. The best PR/marketing manipulates from the sidelines, and you don’t even know they exist. Too bad.
@Chi-Loong: I agree with you. In the link above to PR Watch, you can find all the misdeeds of these large PR firms. But there are the good campaigns (CSR for example) and neutral ones (product announcements) that PR firms do too.
As you mentioned, the PR firm’s job is to sway opinions, but sometimes the public likes being swayed. Like how an Apple fan eagerly awaits the next Apple announcement. Sometimes the public doesn’t like it as in this case with AIG and BM.
Oh, and I disagree that BM’s is just more public. Most listed companies have to declare publicly their appointment of a PR agency and all these negative stories are on PR Watch anyway. I guess it’s too bad this journo picked on BM.