AIG PR firms now up to four… and AIG CEO on Today Show just does “ok.”
Sometimes it’s really hard to keep reading the depressing headlines in this lurching economy. Oh, I don’t mean the those headlines declaring the unemployment rate has hit a twenty-five year low…or that the U.S. is now facing a trillion dollar plus deficit…or you’re your neighbor may lose his job and his home…and even Bernie Madhoff may have to give up his penthouse (God forbid.) No, I’m talking about the sad state of the public relations profession that in spite of itself, can’t seem to get it’s act together and get some good press. (Or as we prefer to call it…Ink.)
AIG, the insurance giant with the largest hand out (literally and figuratively) has decided that it simply must have additional help in spinning it’s story to an even greater number of audiences, and of course, in so doing, spend even more of our tax dollars. AIG’s actions remind me of the old adage about the lone man in a lifeboat that assumed the more people he added, the better it would float. See “AIG's dizzying PR binge ”
And what’s even more depressing is that with all these supposed heavy hitters with the astronomical hourly fees in the AIG line up, one good media trainer can’t be found to provide some sage advice and counsel to their client’s CEO before making an appearance on the Today Show? I know that Tom Cruse might disagree, but Matt Lauer isn’t exactly Mike Wallace. Some where, some how, buried within Kekst & Co., Hill and Knowlton, or Burson-Marsteller is a media specialist at a zillion dollars an hour to rehearse CEO Liddy to ward off those tricky Lauer zingers. AIG CEO draws mixed review on Today. Of course, an even more important question might be, why the Today Show?
My preference would have been to have Liddy’s butt grilled by Congress as to why AIG is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on PR firms’ hourly fees to make excuses rather than humbly and diligently fix the problem.
As a point of full disclosure and a nod to the late Senator Bensten, I know Kekst & Co and Burson-Marsteller, I’ve worked with and for both, and they’re friends of mine…or at least the founders. Both however, along with Hill and Knowlton, the other PR counsels of record, and an enormous internal PR group, should not be above the criticism from the rest of us in the PR profession any more than AIG should be exempt from the wrath of Congress or the tax payers for wasting extremely valuable dollars to benefit the elite few over the many. Yes, AIG, could use and needs professional PR assistance…obviously. But exactly how many very expensive “suits” does it take to give a few solid pieces of common sense advice, to write a non-nonsense annual report, to tell this client to be humble, work hard, react truthfully and openly when asked, but keep a low profile and until you’ve earned back the public’s trust?
The answer evidently is the same number as it takes some to change a light bulb...
AIG, the insurance giant with the largest hand out (literally and figuratively) has decided that it simply must have additional help in spinning it’s story to an even greater number of audiences, and of course, in so doing, spend even more of our tax dollars. AIG’s actions remind me of the old adage about the lone man in a lifeboat that assumed the more people he added, the better it would float. See “AIG's dizzying PR binge ”
And what’s even more depressing is that with all these supposed heavy hitters with the astronomical hourly fees in the AIG line up, one good media trainer can’t be found to provide some sage advice and counsel to their client’s CEO before making an appearance on the Today Show? I know that Tom Cruse might disagree, but Matt Lauer isn’t exactly Mike Wallace. Some where, some how, buried within Kekst & Co., Hill and Knowlton, or Burson-Marsteller is a media specialist at a zillion dollars an hour to rehearse CEO Liddy to ward off those tricky Lauer zingers. AIG CEO draws mixed review on Today. Of course, an even more important question might be, why the Today Show?
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As a point of full disclosure and a nod to the late Senator Bensten, I know Kekst & Co and Burson-Marsteller, I’ve worked with and for both, and they’re friends of mine…or at least the founders. Both however, along with Hill and Knowlton, the other PR counsels of record, and an enormous internal PR group, should not be above the criticism from the rest of us in the PR profession any more than AIG should be exempt from the wrath of Congress or the tax payers for wasting extremely valuable dollars to benefit the elite few over the many. Yes, AIG, could use and needs professional PR assistance…obviously. But exactly how many very expensive “suits” does it take to give a few solid pieces of common sense advice, to write a non-nonsense annual report, to tell this client to be humble, work hard, react truthfully and openly when asked, but keep a low profile and until you’ve earned back the public’s trust?
The answer evidently is the same number as it takes some to change a light bulb...
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