Tag Archives: Obama

Crisis PR, North Korea and Sony

One of the biggest crisis communications stories of 2014 has to be the hacking of Sony Entertainment Group and its subsequent shelving of the moving “The Interview.”

Sony, the FBI and White House have placed the blame on North Korea, which is the obvious culprit.  The DPRK said from the very beginning they would not tolerate such a movie, and they apparently have made good on their threat.

This has to be the ultimate cyber crisis PR situation.  The hackers got deep into Sony without passing through security.  They obtained and then released for the world to see thousands of confidential emails, the social security numbers of 47,000 employees, their health information and five unreleased movies as well.

With more threats on the horizon, Sony caved and gave in to the demands.  They blamed the theater owners who said they would not show the movie.  But in reality, Sony had to be relieved they had them to blame.  And why not.  They gave them permission to back out, which is the same as asking them to.

President Obama said what Sony did was a mistake.  He said they should not have given in to “cyber terrorism” or as he put it, “cyber vandalism.”  He said he would have called the theater owners and asked “what’s up.”  Of course, its easy to say that now after the movie was killed.  Nobody heard that offer during the intensity of the crisis.

This will and has cost Sony tens of millions of dollars and perhaps heads will roll.  Sony Corp. in Japan can’t be happy this happened, especially since they were worried about the movie from day one.  But more is at stake here than Sony’s bottom line or the company’s reputation.

This episode illustrates just how easy it is attack a corporate entity just by sitting in front of a computer screen.  In the pre-internet age, companies would have to beat competition by producing a better product.  Now, they can not only beat a company, they can virtually destroy it all from the comfort of their laptops.

This is such a big story because it clearly shows the vulnerability of corporations and government entities to cyber attack.  If hackers can get into Sony’s computers, they most certainly can get into government systems that control our power grids, water systems, banking systems and even our defense department.

Computers and the internet are wonderful inventions.  They have dramatically changed our lives.  But at the same time they have become our addiction.  Our reliance on our computers, tablets and smart phones makes life easier, faster and often more fun.  But at the same time, when this technology is taken away or destroyed, our lives can come crumbling down.

If there are people smart enough to hack into computer systems (and many live right here in the U.S.) there have to be people smart enough to prevent hacking.  We all know it’s not easy.  Too many safeguards to keep people out also tend to keep out people we want to hear from.  But it’s a lesson we all must learn from.

As they say, “Hollywood is the only place where your friends stab you in the front.”

Obamacare: The branding of a President

Every president of the United States is a historical figure.  For good or bad, they are remembered as making history in some way or another.

Students memorize the presidents in order.  Some even write papers about what they accomplished, or what they messed up.

But rarely is a president remembered as a brand or a product.  But that is exactly what is happening with Barack Obama, and will continue for centuries to come.  Not only will his name live on as a president of the U.S., but it will live on as Obamacare, otherwise more officially known as The Affordable Care Act.

Long into the future, people will call their healthcare Obamacare.  Like Medicare, it will become an integral part of our lexicon even though it really doesn’t exist as an entity.   It already has.

Whether Obamacare proves to be a positive or negative, at least President Obama has achieved something no other president has ever been able to:  making his a household name that will live on in our daily language and lives.

Obama speech-less, and misses a PR opportunity

President Obama came to California to raise money, meet with China’s leader and, presumably, talk about healthcare reform.

With the uproar over the government listening in on citizens’ conversations, the President apparently wanted to divert some attention to the new healthcare exchanges being formed.  His plan was to use California as a model for the exchanges and get the word out.

However, there are more juicy stories to cover and media that came to a news conference where the President was to talk about healthcare came equipped with questions on a range of issues, not healthcare.

Then a remarkable thing happened.

The President was on stage flanked by healthcare representatives ready to deliver his remarks, but the remarks were not on his podium.  It was an awkward moment captured by CNN.  The President was ready to talk, but didn’t have his talking points.  He looked around and loudly said, “people?” a couple of times.  While he was waiting, for what probably seemed like an eternity for him, a reporter tried to ask a question on another topic.  The President deflected the question asking everybody to wait for his prepared remarks that were being rushed to the stage.

If the President was a bit quicker on his feet, he would have realized that the few moments that he and everybody waited in silence for his remarks would be fodder for YouTube, other social media, and mainstream media.  CNN showed it.  Therefore, what better time for him to ad lib about healthcare without his remarks.  He certainly is smart enough to do that.  Had he, then the two minute segment would have included the message he wanted to convey, a message that the media cares little about and probably won’t report now.

Social media loves mistakes.  YouTube is full of mishaps, fails and embarrassments.  The President could have and should have recognized the opportunity to get a message across because of the mishap, and not to let the moment go into oblivion.