Photo Opp Goes Awry

Posted by Tom Gable

The Wall Street Journal reported that The White House canceled a planned second photo shoot of a jumbo jet used as Air Force One in Washington, D.C. next month with the nation’s capital as a backdrop after negative public reaction to Monday’s flight in New York with the Statue of Liberty as the icon, which made headlines in the WSJ, The New York Times and other media. The scramble by White House officials to retrace the steps that led to the gaffe generated other stories and blog coverage.

With foresight and basic risk analysis, the first flight might not have happened, saving the White House the need to jump into the post-event crisis PR and apology mode.

PR firms and internal staffs typically go through a somewhat simple but strategic process of analysis to determine the value and benefit of any special event, promotion, photo opportunity, stunt or other activity.

Here is the Gable PR check list, to which many other ideas could be added:

• Useful purpose of the proposed activity (write a vision statement or project goal)
• Logistics, staging (feasibility, issues, costs, timing, etc.)
• Participants
• Context (where does it fit in society, the public, mores)
• Desired outcome
• Cost/benefit
• The flip side – risk analysis

The risk analysis portion is most critical. What could go wrong? Is the proposed activity moral, ethical, sensitive to all outside interests and publics, drain on resources, a public safety issue or fraught with even the tiniest hint of potential disruption of the daily lives of those who would be involved, either directly or indirectly? Risk analysis can lead to a quick decision on go, no go, or modify.

When things go wrong, management needs to determine the cause. Was it an issue with authority, responsibility, controls, processes or even culture? Common sense also plays a huge role. If this incident were taken apart by Saturday Night Live on Weekend Update the bit might be: “What were they thinking?” And Seth Myers would say: “Let’s spend $300,000 of taxpayers’ money to fly a 747 and fighter jet at low level over Manhattan and scare the hell out of several million people so we can have a neat photo for our Web site.”

Photo by Jim Brown