Imagine you’re a bar owner in Jasper, Missouri. Congratulations: You’re the proud owner of the Double Deuce bar! (It was a real hellhole, too, until a mysterious stranger cleaned it up.) And let’s also pretend that you’ve heard a few complaints about your dimly-lit parking lot; because it’s so dark, your guests feel unsafe.
Do you: A, Install bright, new lights ASAP because you’re a good, decent human being, and safety must always be a priority? Or B, Ignore the complaints. (Hey, that Dalton guy will take care of it.)
Actually, the right answer is C: You better talk to your lawyer before you do anything else!
It’s a little bit counterintuitive, but being overly proactive and installing lighting ASAP could inadvertently expose the Double Deuce to further liability. It’s happened elsewhere: A lawyer can (successfully) argue that the fact that you’ve installed outdoor lights demonstrates that you were aware of the problem with crime, violence, and safety in the past — so why the hell did you wait ‘til today to fix it?
The first rule of crisis communications is, don’t do anything that makes your legal situation worse. Winning a PR battle on a Monday and getting sent to jail on a Friday is a lousy strategy.
We wanna win the last headline, not the first one.
The second rule is to figure out what happened and why. It’s absolutely imperative for YOU to be the world’s leading expert in — whatever the hell just happened. Otherwise, you’ll be blindsided by vulnerabilities that you never considered.
You gotta do a deep dive and accumulate as much data as possible. No surprises! Figure everything out as quickly as you can, because the quality of your PR response is directly linked to the quality of your internal data.
The third rule is to develop and disseminate an “alternative explanation” that can outduel the bad one in the “free market of ideas.” There’s a lot of artistry here, because PR is ultimately a battle of storytelling, and most of the time, the better story wins.
And what makes one story “better” than the other? Credibility. Relatability. Understandability. But what’s credible, relatable, and understandable to one audience is idiotic, baffling, and foreign to another. You gotta tailor your message accordingly.
Sometimes, you can gloss over whatever happened. Other times, you’ve gotta deal with it head-on. There’s a time and place for everything.
Next, you need to “sell” your message. If you’re a Republican, not all outlets are equal. (For all the talk about our political polarization, the media polarization is probably worse.) Same goes for Democrats: If you think, say, Chuck Schumer will regain the love of liberals by appearing on Fox News or The Daily Wire, you’re nuts.
Fortunately, with the rise of alternative outlets — including podcasts, websites, and dudes like Joe Rogan — Republicans have more options than ever before. A generation ago, hardcore conservatives still had to issue mea culpas on CNN, the network news, or on the pages of The New York Times. One of the lasting legacies of the MAGA revolution was the diminishment of the mainstream media: Half the country no longer trusts it.
And since most of those people are sympathetic to Trump, it makes no sense to use the mainstream media to try and win them back!
You’ll probably need to “sell” your story via a planned, organized media campaign. Maybe you’ll do Rogan and Bret Baier on a Monday, and then two or three others through the weekend. Choose your outlets — and your allies — carefully. Because, if you’re careless and/or sloppy, instead of putting the negative story to bed, you’ll be feeding it oxygen.
That’s another rule: Make sure your “media ambassadors” stick like Velcro to their talking points. No freelancing.
This ain’t The Improv.
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Finally, you wanna turn the page. The Trump administration does this better than anyone I’ve ever seen! There’s absolutely nobody more proficient at flipping the script, changing the narrative, and nuking the status quo. Steve Bannon called it “flooding the zone” and it’s a volume game: If you’re constantly creating new and interesting storylines, all the old ones get pushed to the back burner.
That’s critical because scandals hurt you via their legs. (Unlike Dalton, who can also hurt you by tearing your throat out.) It’s the ongoing, never-ending, daily drip-drip-drip that hijacks your agenda and kills your momentum.
That said, a scandal without legs isn’t really a scandal. It’s just one bad day!
Go it?
Now get to work.
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