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Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Media Orchard Presents: The 10 Worst Spins of 2005

Media Orchard, one of the nation's most-read public relations blogs, today unveils its first-annual list of the year's 10 Worst Spins. The list presents the most shameless, silly, ineffective and/or ill-advised attempts to influence public perceptions.

And the winners are:

1. Michael Brown: The Nero of New Orleans.


He waded through the worst natural disaster in U.S. history with a trail of sycophantic PR people telling him (a la Fernando Lamas) he "looked fabulous." (The flacks did offer some advice, too; press secretary Sharon Worthy told Brown to "roll up his sleeves" -- literally -- so he'd look better on TV.) Brown has rebounded by starting a consulting company to help others learn from his experiences. That's some wicked spin, boys and girls.

2. Ford to Gay Pubs: "I Wish I Knew How to Quit You."


Ford stumbled into a political mess when it appeared to cave to right-wing demands to remove its ads from gay-oriented publications. It said, "It is clear there is a misperception about our intent." Then it put ads back in the gay pubs to "remove any ambiguity." Ambiguity?

3. Savvis: Topless Dancers, Bottomless Expense Accounts.


Robert McCormick, CEO of St. Louis IT services provider Savvis, racked up a $241,000 tab in one night at a New York strip club (roughly enough to get lap-danced to the moon and back.) Inexplicably, neither McCormick nor Savvis took care of the AmEx bill, so AmEx sued -- creating a humiliating public scandal. Savvis responded with a letter of apology that didn't actually include an apology, so Media Orchard did them a favor and rewrote it for them. Then Savvis whipped out the PR 101 playbook (Chapter 47: When to Announce Bad News) and issued McCormick's resignation over Thanksgiving.

4. Matt Drudge and Michelle Malkin: Liberal-Media Bashers Gone Wild.


PR people take a lot of flack (as it were) for their spinning abilities -- but nobody spins better than media and blog pundits. Two of the worst offenders are right-wing BS artists Matt and Michelle -- whose disingenuous rabble-rousing borders on the pathological. Drudge in 2005 tied the inarticulate rantings of a CNN switchboard operator to the vast liberal media conspiracy; Malkin linked a subpar Photoshop effort at USA Today to the self-same plot.

5. Mr. Youth: Jargon-Loving Boom 1.0 Throwback.


Matt Britton, you should be ashamed of yourself. A managing partner of New York-based student-marketing company Mr. Youth, Matt actually said this to a reporter (italics ours):

There is a paradigm shift in the way that corporations are marketing to college students. The student ambassador tactic embraces all the elements that corporations find most effective: It's peer-to-peer, it's word of mouth, it's flexible and it breaks through the clutter.

But is it best of breed? Scalable? An enterprise solution? Hoo-boy.

6. Bill O'Reilly: Savior of Christmas and Low Gas Prices.


We guess that, technically, megalomania is a mental illness -- so, technically, we should be nice to Bill O'Reilly. But that would be getting too technical for us. So we'll just point out that Bill took credit both for saving our most sacred holiday (Christmas) and reducing the price of our most precious commodity (oil) in the same year. Well done, Bill. Now, please stop smirking and yelling at us ... or, at least, stop doing one or the other. We're willing to compromise.

7. The Fox News PR Department: No-Tact Zone.


Charlie Reina, an ex-Fox News producer, wrote a letter to Jim Romenesko criticizing his former employer's coverage of religious issues. Fox's media relations director, Paul Schur, issued this tactful response:

Charlie's rants about Fox News are both predictable and sad. For his sake, we hope he stops howling at the moon and moves on with his life. We wish him well in his current role making cabinets out of his garage.

Way to stay above the fray, Paul.

8. Hillary Clinton: Defender of Family Values.


Hillary is spinning herself silly to broaden her base in preparation for her 2008 presidential run. Most irritating is her campaign against the "silent epidemic" of media sex and violence. The "epidemic" isn't really silent, of course; it's blasting out of every radio speaker and cineplex. It's the politicians who are silent -- except when it suits their purposes to squawk.

9. Mena Trott and Her PR Pals: Defenders of F-Bombs.


Mena, president of Web 2.0 darling Six Apart, gave a speech in Paris earlier this month on the importance of "civility" in blogging. Then, oddly, she cursed out a questioner from the audience, using lots of uncivil words. Making the whole episode even more surreal (and embarrassing for us PR bloggers), at least one "new PR" pundit suggested Mena hadn't erred at all, and had merely been "real." Real dumb, anyway.

10. ASU to Recruits: "Pay No Attention to Our Playboy Hotties."


Playboy plans to publish a coed pictorial featuring the "Top 10 Party Schools" in the May 2006 issue. The list leaked, revealing Arizona State University among the winners. ASU President Michael Crow sniffed that the listing is "a gross simplification that doesn't have anything to do with who we are and what we are." Michael doth protest too much, wethinks (sorry -- do they teach Shakespeare at ASU?)

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posted by Scott Baradell at 6:21 AM

12 Comments:

  • About the Playboy flap, McGill University in Montreal is also on the list. Here's what they had to say about it (taken from a Montreal Gazette article):

    Kristine Greenaway, director of university relations, said McGill obviously has nothing to do with the Playboy designation.

    "McGill prides itself on its academic achievements and its international student body," she said. "It does not see itself at all as a 'Top 10 Party School.'"

    Kinda similar, is it not? I bet that if we researched comments from others, they'd all follow that same pattern.

    MS

    By Blogger Marc Snyder, at 12/28/2005  

  • Way to keep it non-partisan. No spin here.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/28/2005  

  • The Savvis stripper is hilarious. They should hire you to be their new CEO

    By Anonymous moni, at 12/28/2005  

  • You failed to include yourself...you are spinning faster than a high horsepower auto engine...

    By Blogger Tiresias De Tocqueville, at 12/28/2005  

  • Tiresias:

    Thanks. I pride myself on speed.

    Scott

    By Blogger SB, at 12/28/2005  

  • Earlier Anonymous: Way to keep it insightful here. You see, it isn't hard to be partisan with all the right-wing blowhards.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/28/2005  

  • you are spinning faster than a high horsepower auto engine...

    Actually, engine speed and power don't necessarily correlate. If you compare two engines that produce roughly the same peak horsepower, one may have more displacement, perhaps even more cylinders, and thus it will spin much more slowly than the other.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/28/2005  

  • Agree on Marc's comment, it's not want something they'll want to publicize-- their main concern when they get on those lists is how it might affect the alumni contributions, which can go down because of this.

    The kids interested in partying will find the list on their own, I'm sure...

    By Blogger Chris, at 12/28/2005  

  • "Way to keep it non-partisan. No spin here."

    Hillary Clinton isn't exactly a card carrying member of the vast rightwing conspiracy, but you just go ahead and just ignore that. Its not like registered independents like myself (who made the mistake of supporting your moving clownshow after 911) haven't noticed that you dedicated rightwingers wear blinders professionally when it suits your needs.

    In fact, Brownie DID do a heck of a job, Condi was made to look like the devil by the secret liberal illumanati, and Christmas is under seige because pinko commie WalMart is in the secret liberal illuminati too.

    Can't wait to see how you get us to vote for you again now that you control every branch of the federal government, but still whine about being oppressed all the time.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/28/2005  

  • Nice list, Scott. The PR spins you've listed are some of the "most cringable" of the year. Kind of like watching a real-life version of "The Office". Eeesh.

    As for the other posters who would rather name call and generate heat via their own version of a spin cycle, all I can say is they could do much better. Assuming most of us who read this blog are professional communicators (and, more specifically, PR people), we should be able to provide concrete examples of out-of-control spin from the other political direction rather than resorting to name calling and cheap shots.

    My only suggestion on your list for next year, Scott ... how about a "10 Best" political PR plays for 2006? It's a campaign year and it's sure to have lots of "bad and ugly" and not so much "good."

    Thanks again. I've linked to this post for Friday's (12/29) "Much Ado About Marketing" blog.

    Best for '06,

    Mike Bawden
    Brand Central Station

    By Blogger Mike Bawden, at 12/29/2005  

  • Good God, I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, that the University of Georgia has slipped to No. 11 on Playboy's list of party schools. If UGA is No. 11, I shudder to think what the Top Ten are like. Athens has a fine music scene though, one of the best.

    By Anonymous Deb, at 12/30/2005  

  • Some of these spinners got themselves in troubles by trying to contest actual facts. Amateurs. You can't win when you're up against something that's objective, measurable, and reported.

    By Anonymous Ed Kohler, at 1/03/2006  

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