BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

A panel of doctors sent shockwaves through the country last week, recommending that women above the age of 50 receive mammograms less frequently and women under the age of 50 largely forego what has become for many an annual routine. According to the American Cancer Society, women have a 1 in 68 chance of developing breast cancer in their 40s. In the face of this threat and the conventional wisdom that prevention is the best medicine, ... READ MORE

Add United Airlines to the list of companies that have now experienced social media's power to ensure consumers' voices are heard. The airline found itself out of tune earlier this month after a satirical music video describing poor customer service exploded virally. As I discussed with Aviation Week last week, this video is yet another reminder that the Web has fundamentally changed crisis communications for good. The YouTube video by musician Dave Carroll, "United Breaks Guitars," ... READ MORE

On Friday, President Obama said he "could have calibrated" his words more carefully when he criticized the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Applying a classic crisis communications term to justify his statements, the President said he hoped the case would provide "a teachable moment" to spur improved relations between minorities and the police. Better he should have obeyed another PR shibboleth: Know the facts before you enter a fight. By jumping into the ... READ MORE

For someone who's been such a vehemently outspoken critic of the media since first landing in the national spotlight nearly a year ago, Governor Sarah Palin sure has made it easy to fill those column inches and cable news segments. As she announced her resignation on Friday, she went a step further - providing a gift that keeps on giving in the form of countless opportunities to speculate about the reasons why she quit and where ... READ MORE

Yesterday, I wrote about the current reputational crisis facing Domino's Pizza and the need for the company to engage critics on YouTube - the medium that gave rise to the crisis in the first place. It seems that as I was writing, Domino's was acting. Domino's President Patrick Doyle responded yesterday with a viral video of his own, in which he apologizes for the incident, thanks the online community for alerting the company to the problem, and ... READ MORE

When more than 10,000 Moldovan youths gathered on Tuesday to protest the nation's Communist leadership, we were provided further evidence that online communications are increasingly facilitating offline assemblies - everywhere around the globe. Organizers used Twitter, Facebook, and text messaging to spread word of the demonstration, share first-hand accounts of the day's events, and express the opinions that led to protest in the first place. The fact that this comes just one week after social media played a ... READ MORE

In 2002, Las Vegas launched a new $75 million tourism campaign. In 2009, just about everyone knows what happens there, stays there. It's all about safe excess. Come to Vegas, be anonymous, and commit whatever vice you like within our relaxed legal limits. Who's going to know? Certainly not your spouse, boss, or minister. But now, after spending all that time and expense getting this message across, the Mayor of Sin City is shocked and appalled to ... READ MORE

At his much-anticipated news conference in Tampa, Alex Rodriguez did nothing to end the mounting disillusion that has badly tarnished his career and blighted all of Major League Baseball. At the same time, his performance offered a cautionary tale for anyone in any business caught in a crisis. A-Rod faced a void that sorely demands filling, and he came nowhere near filling it. The baseball world needed direct human connection, eye-to-eye, spirit-to-spirit. Not sound bytes, not ... READ MORE

Six months ago, I would scarecely have imagined finding myself inspired by the actions of the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. As a Republican who campaigned for President Bush twice and served six years in his Administration, I listened throughout the campaign as candidate Obama advocated programs and policy positions fundamentally opposed to many of my fiscally conservative principles. Through nearly two years of campaigning, I thought I had seen and heard it all from the ... READ MORE

This month's issue of Inside Counsel features the results of its recent general counsel survey where, among other questions, counsel was asked to rank the most important factors in hiring outside counsel (PDF; page 5). Unsurprisingly, 'quality of work' and 'responsiveness' were both top-ranked, with 'creative solutions' and 'billing rates' not falling far behind. What was surprising to us, however, is how low 'diversity program' ranked in survey results. According to Inside Counsel, "Both in-house counsel ... READ MORE