40 Anniversary of 1982 Johnson and Johnson Tylenol Crisis

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The 1982 Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis For 40 years, many people in PR have considered the response of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to the Tylenol poisonings in October 1982 to be the ‘grand-daddy of good crisis communication’. Although it may be more accurate to think of it as the ‘grand-daddy of corporate responsibility’, let …

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Is an apology always the right thing to do when you have the luxury of choice?

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Kim Kardashian chose not to apologise last week for a misleading post on social media which landed her with a $1.26 million fine from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). For a privileged few, the normal rules of reputation don’t seem to apply. The SEC warned celebrities in November 2017 that they must disclose …

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Adam Batstone, Journalist and Electric Airwaves Media Trainer

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Why is it that experienced media performers – politicians especially - often fall into the trap of getting into a heated ‘row’ with an interviewer when it is almost always counter-productive for the audience? In my experience of conducting interviews and preparing interviewees, the specters of Paxman, Neil and Humphrys still loom large. Theirs is …

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Does it matter that Tesco had this selection of bad news headlines one day last week in national, trade and local press:

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Tesco plant-based food advert banned as misleading (BBC) Tesco rebuked over greenwashing in adverts for plant-based food (FT) Britain's Tesco rapped by watchdog over plant-based products ads (Reuters) Tesco vegan burger adverts banned over ‘misleading’ environmental claims (Telegraph) ASA bans ‘misleading’ Tesco plant-based burger ads (Farmers Weekly) ASA chastises Tesco over greenwashing plant burger claims (The Drum) “Misleading” Tesco plant-based food …

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Perfect example of how to handle a difficult journalist question

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Louis Heren, veteran post-war Foreign Correspondent of The Times newspaper, famously said that in his job as a reporter seeking truth, he always asked himself of interviewees “Why is this lying bastard lying to me?”. This underlies why journalists ask challenging questions and participants on our media training courses desperately want to learn how to …

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Can Your Spokespeople Paint Pictures With Words?

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To learn how to communicate effectively on radio and explain complicated topics simply, listen to the first 90 seconds of this four minute item from BBC Radio 4’s fact-checking and statistics programme, More Or Less - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0014x0f (scroll forward to 11.25). The programme’s presenter, economist Tim Harford, is excellent at using simple, accessible language to …

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In this week’s case study: the potential reputation pitfall in claiming to be an ethical company

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In our media training, we coach spokespeople to be scrupulously honest. If you take a strong ethical stance, you need to live up to the expectations you create. And you shouldn’t be surprised if the media calls you out on your claims, especially if they turn out to be more nuanced than what the public …

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Are you as positive about 2022 as our clients’ PROS?

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Electric Airwaves’ brand new Carnaby Street TV and radio studios have been busy this month serving the needs of Communication teams who need their spokespeople to communicate an engaging and compelling story confidently and effectively. In anticipation of the government lifting its ‘work from home’ guidance – as it did this week – there was …

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Google’s loss opens the door to more cases.

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Fined €4.34 billion in 2018, €1.49 billion in 2019...........Google's loss opens the door to more cases. EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager won her first big Google case in front of the EU's lower court, in a ruling that is set to embolden regulators to launch more cases against the U.S. search giant. Read the Article

Whitby Nice To Be This Good – Hear The Difference Between The Media Trained & Untrained

Corporate Story, Media Training / By
An uncontentious media interview - as are most interviews that your spokespeople will ever undertake - on Monday 26th July nonetheless demonstrated the skill of someone who has been media trained to communicate effectively an engaging message. And in the same interview, that contrasted starkly with the ramblings of someone who had not been media …

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HOW TO TURN YOUR CORPORATE BABBLE INTO INTERVIEW GOLD

Corporate Story, Media Training / By
We always tell participants during our media training sessions that your answer to a journalist’s opening question is when the audience decides whether to trust you and invest precious time listening to you. Especially since in all probability, the audience won’t have heard of you and possibly your organisation. Meet Marcus Hughes, European managing director …

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The Rich & The Beautiful – When Reputation Rules Don’t Apply

Case Study, Media Training / By
The idea that there are people who think the rules don’t apply to them strikes deeply at people’s sense of fairness in the best of times. In the middle of a pandemic, does the action of a celebrity individual or organisation that seems to prove that there is ‘one rule for the rich, another for …

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mistake

HOW TO DESTROY YOUR STRONG CORPORATE STORY: A SAD CASE STUDY

Corporate Story, Media Training / By
Sorrow is defined as a feeling of deep distress caused by loss or disappointment. This is how I feel about FTSE100 company Hiscox Insurance. Sorrow because they had such a powerful corporate story that it was a joy to media train their spokespeople for six years until 2013. And now the company has blown it …

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When your CEO makes you want to cry

Media Training / By
In our media training and presentation training, we counsel spokespeople to take care with their language. I imagine that there have been some challenging conversations at KPMG following the Financial Times headline yesterday that: “KPMG UK chairman told staff to ‘stop moaning’ about work conditions”. Today, every newspaper rehashes the story and reports how Bill …

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