PR That Doesn't Bark, Or Barks Too Much, Personal Technology

There’s a moment in All The President’s Men that nails it.

Bob Woodward is telling his editors about when he’d called up the White House to confirm that Howard Hunt, one of the Watergate burglars, worked there as a consultant for Charles Colson, one of the most powerful men in President Nixon’s government. He recounts how the PR guy stressed that Colson, nor anyone else at the White House, knew about Watergate.

Isn’t that what you’d expect him to say, one of the editors says. Absolutely, Woodward replies. So?
“I never asked them about Watergate,” he says.

This, to me, is not only great cinema but classic journalism. It’s also a classic PR error, and you can see it all the time. To say or do something that reveals what your client really cares about — and how much they care about it.

Recently I saw it in a feeble response from a major software company to a very specific question I’d asked. Tagged on were answers to a bunch of imaginary questions I hadn’t asked, or even implied I was interested in. Lord knows how long they took to put this together. Actually I know — 10 days, because that’s how long I had to wait.

As a journalist, your instinct is to remove clumps of hair from your own head, or, if already clump-free, those of family members or passers-by.

But actually, buried in the robot speak are nuggets. Now I know what they thought I was asking, or might ask, because they’ve invested so much time in trying to build a smokescreen.

And the fact they didn’t address the one question I did ask recalls Sherlock Holmes and the dog that didn’t bark.

In this case, of course, the dog kept quiet because it recognized its owner, who turned out to be the guilty party. Whereas the Woodward Maneouver is about what PR folk put in that wasn’t asked for, the Bark-free Dog is about what they leave out.

This sort of blunder — leave stuff out, put other stuff in — is all over the place when you know what to look for. I see it in breathless press releases that I never asked for.

Interviews when the media-trained exec grinds each answer back to the message bullet-points he’s got tattooed into his brain. I see it in unsolicited pitches that offer interviews with CEOs who really should be busier.

I see it in PR companies which are a little too eager to lend us technology columnists a gadget. And then ignoring requests to take them back when I’m done.

Good PR should be seen and not heard, and preferably not seen. If you blow smoke you’re going to leave a vapor trail, when you should be invisible. Your client’s face should be no higher above the parapet than that required to create interest, if that’s what’s being sought. And if it’s not being sought, you should just answer the question and then, frankly, hush up.

We’re not all Woodwards or hear dogs that don’t bark, but we can all smell smoke.