Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Ethics trumps expedience....

We recently had a press conference that television covered—only to find a few hours later that the spokesperson didn’t want her face seen because of domestic violence issues.
We immediately called the reporter to see if we could get the woman’s video clip removed.
The reporter said she’d pull it, but was very curt. It had been her lead.
We got other coverage, but were disappointed to lose a story on homeless housing.
I thanked the journalist, apologized via email—and sent a large box of chocolates to her, even though she wouldn’t get it for a few days.
In the meantime, the client put better controls in place for choosing spokespeople.
In the end, the journalist was able to salvage the story, which ran the next day. By cutting the anecdotal lead, she made it shorter, which the producers loved, she quipped.
We were lucky it worked out for all concerned. But we didn’t know that when we acted.
We did what we had to do, no matter what the potential cost, because it was the right thing to do. Period.
For more information, call Dell Richards Publicity at 916-455-4790 or visit us at www.dellrichards.com.