Crisis Management

Sudan Promotes Self to NY Times Readers

The Government of Sudan -- tired of international media focusing on the country's ongoing genocide -- paid for an upbeat eight-page advertising insert in Monday's New York Times. O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports that Summit Communications prepared the insert which "extols the investment opportunities in the energy-rich state" but "has no rebuttal to United Nations and U.S.

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Coke's PR Connects Canada and Colombia

After students at two Canadian universities, McMaster and the University of Guelph, voted down campus exclusivity deals with Coca-Cola, "the world's largest soft-drink company has launched a counter-offensive in hopes of heading off further boycotts." In December, Coke reps visited McMaster and the University of British Columbia.

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The Victory of Spin

More examples of the Bush administration's manipulation of news spilled out into U.S. newspapers last week. Raising further questions about how the White House continues to spin its "War on Terror," the Los Angeles Times reported on November 30 the U.S. military "is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S.

Crisis Management Rule #1: Change the Subject

"A Texas grand jury's decision to indict former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) may have caught many people in Washington off-guard, but those in DeLay's inner circle had spent the past few days bracing themselves," reports The Hill. "Minutes after the announcement came, DeLay's closest and strongest supporters began mounting a defense.

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Wal-Mart's Good Deeds

Wal-Mart Stores "is enjoying its best publicity in years as even its harshest critics laud the retailer's Hurricane Katrina relief efforts," reports Emily Kaiser. And the company is planning a "secret spin strategy to counter a union-backed, anti-Wal-Mart media blitz" that accuses the company of paying poverty-level wages and driving competitors out of business.

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Spinning A Disaster

The Director of Crisis Media for the PR firm Hill & Knowlton, Paul Clark, had a few words of advice on crisis management for public officials handling the Hurricane Katrina disaster. "One of the first concepts is to accept blame if it applies ... people forgive mistakes, but they don't forgive excuses," Clark told the St.

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