Brand Turnaround

Never Play the Blame Game

Increasingly, media relations around brands in trouble is being mismanaged by those I call “crybabies.” The brands are on the hot seat and, instead of communicating with poise and a story that will help improve their situations, they whine, they rant, they blame, and they shed tears, and they think this will gain them sympathy.

Here are some recent classics in the crybaby genre:

Tony Hayward, BP CEO, saying, “I’d like my life back,” days after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up and oil was spilling into the Gulf of Mexico

BP, Transocean, and Halliburton pointing fingers, playing the blame game at congressional hearings ...