What if every company used Tylenol’s wonderful response to the tainting of its products, some years back, as a model for modern crisis communications?
What if someone with influence in a large (unnamed) PR entity said, “Wait a minute! Do we really think it’s appropriate to reward the people who drove us into the ditch, and who destroyed the life savings (and the trust) of so many millions of people?"
What if someone in the PR Department at (company name here) had said, “Wait a minute! Do we really think it’s appropriate to be planning lavish parties when so many of the people who hold mortgages with us are going under?"
What if more companies didn’t try to be everything to everyone, but just focused on doing the best they could within their niche?
What if most company presidents who did apologetic TV commercials – or mea culpas – didn’t come off as stiff, over-rehearsed, under-genuine windbags who could never really empathize with the millions who’ve felt betrayed by them?
What if the insurance and banking executives whose boundless greed helped create the financial crisis years ago…actually had to experience the pain that other folks experienced because of them?
What if companies stopped making claims about their products that they know aren’t true? (Or – here’s a thought – what if they started making products that actually do live up to their claims?)
What if more PR and marketing executives believed the way for their companies or clients to generate attention was not to shout louder than the other guy…but to speak with more substance?
What if they banned celebrity spokespeople from the media…and products had to be hawked only on their actual merits? (Yes…I know this ain’t gonna happen!)
What if Super Bowl ads actually spoke more about the actual benefits of their products and services…rather than turn the nation’s most-watched TV event into a competition for the most technologically-superior ad?
And, last but not least, what if we actually spoke with our publics…instead of to them?