Tiger & The Tabloids

On November 30, it was just a minor blip on the PR radar screen: Tiger Woods had had a car crash – on his own or a neighbor’s property yet! – and instead of ‘fessing up to a row with his wife, he called it “a private matter”, thinking it would fool us all. Well, now we KNOW why he wanted to keep it “private”. Apart from feeling awful for his wife and their tiny children, I frankly don’t care how many affairs the man has had, but here we have yet another hero with feet of clay, thinking he is exempt from the laws of social behavior.

In today’s world, we all live in glass houses. Nothing is private anymore; any secrets you wish to keep will be revealed in cyberspace by someone else, at warp speed.

So, is Tiger naïve, arrogant, stupid, delusional? Yes.

Rarely before has the foundation of PR been more evident: if you don’t control the message, someone else will, and you may not like the result.

Tiger Woods & The Media – how not to make a PR crash after you’ve had a car crash.

Had Tiger Woods said: “Elin and I had a fight and I stormed out of the house”, instead of lambasting the media and saying: “this is a private matter”, everyone would have understood and carried on with their own business (after all, who among us has not ever had a spousal dispute?) and Woods’s accident would have been a forgotten minor incident by now.

If you find yourself in the media spotlight for less then perfect reasons, whether you are a celebrity or not, tell the truth, tell the whole story, tell it yourself (certainly not your lawyer, unless you face possible criminal charges) apologize, and ask forgiveness. Easy, and end of story.

Gobbledygook

If you are using any of the following words or phrases in your press releases, web content, brochures or other communications tools, you are "communicating without meaning". Here they are:
Innovate
Pleased to
Unique
Focused on
Leading provider
Commitment
Partnership
New and improved
Leverage
120 percent
Cost effective

Who says so? David Meerman Scott, the author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, who did a Vocus webinar this afternoon, where I learned so much in one hour - for free! - that I now have a whole lot of revising to do for my own company, and tons to teach my clients. I wouldn't bother if I had any doubts about the validity of the webinar's content.

Do you know who Cindy Gordon is?