Online Public Relations Thoughts

The economy tanked for a second quarter in a row and inflation is rampant, but President Biden refuses to acknowledge the "R" word -- recession.  From a communicator's point of view, he is boxing himself in again as he did when he prematurely called the end of COVID and inflation only to watch both skyrocket.  The public remembers faux pas like these when it is time to vote.  Biden, for some reason, refuses to hedge his remarks, which is a fundamental mistake.  He can't know the future so he can't predict it with confidence.  No one expected a war in Ukraine would cramp gas and gasoline availability and cause food prices to escalate.  But, it did.  A realistic leader would be more cautious than the President is.  

How do you communicate future trends when you don't know what the future holds?  You bob and weave like this. The Federal Reserve is in the glare of a spotlight and being watched by millions.  All want to know if the US is going into a recession.  The Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, doesn't know, so his words give fuel to all sides along with a cautionary tone that can be read in two ways as well.  The result?  We don't know anymore than anyone else.  That is proper. To declare no recession or yes, a recession is imminent would provide a specific data point against which markets would react.  Powell doesn't want that.  He is insisting on a gray zone, which is where the Fed is.  It is politically neutral and truthful -- a muddled message but needed at this time.    

New York City has asked the World Health Organization to change the name of the virus called monkeypox.  But, by any other name, the disease will still be a painful infection for those who contract it.  The city's rationale is that vulnerable communities might not seek medical aid because of the name.  That is hard to believe.  It is an African-derived disease that has spread to Europe and the US and changing the name won't shift the origin of it.  Giving it a neutral name like COVID doesn't take away its potency.  One would think the City has a better means of providing clinical help than christening the virus by another name.  It's a propaganda ploy and not a good one.  

 President Biden has COVID and is quarantining in the White House.  This comes more than a year after he said the country was turning the corner on controlling the virus.  We know now that it and its variants never left and are continuing to infect hundreds of thousands and kill dozens a day.  The government's public information campaign worked to a point but people grew weary of masking and keeping a six-foot distance and today are ignoring the disease until they come down with it.  Worse, millions have ignored booster shots and are more vulnerable to its symptoms.  COVID is endemic in the US and will continue to evolve as months pass. The CDC will need to develop new communications tools to get citizens to understand they need to take care and get boosted. 

Europe is suffering from an intense heat wave, and there are fires in Portugal, Spain, France and the UK.  Scientists say the situation is the result of climate change.  There is an indication that the public now accepts that it is time to reduce carbon dioxide emissions or the situation will only get worse.  There is a chance that this time something will be done because the public and government often need to experience a crisis before acting.  However, it is only a chance and not a certainty because controlling greenhouse gases will require lifestyle changes and that might be a request that goes too far.  If that happens, citizens will adjust to the heat and continue with the way they have lived while blocking essential steps to reach net zero.  No one knows now whether the world can turn around global warming by 2050.  It will take a sustained public information and relations campaign backed by laws and regulations in every country for there to be a chance of success.  We are a long distance from that.  

Ford Motor is offering a new 700-horsepower, gas-driven F-150 pickup for $109,145.  This comes at a time when it is also building an electric pickup.  Is it a last hurrah for petroleum-powered vehicles in an age of soaring oil prices?  The price of the truck almost makes it a collector's vehicle to be put in a garage for future generations to ogle and discuss.   It also makes Ford an ambivalent manufacturer when it comes to environmental matters.  Yes, it is building electric but it isn't going to leave reciprocal engines just yet.  A climate-change activist would be appalled, but it is apparent that Ford doesn't care.  Given the price of the truck, it is doubtful Ford will sell many of them but it positions them nicely for gear-heads.  

Reporters were left with the challenge of who is telling the truth -- President Biden or the Saudi Arabian foreign minister. The conundrum arose from a private meeting Biden held with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.  Reporters asked if Biden brought up the killing of the Washington Post journalist, which US intelligence agencies said was ordered by the crown prince.  Biden said he did.  The foreign minister said he didn't.  The lack of transparency means no one will know anytime soon what transpired, if ever.  This doesn't help the perception of Biden as a waffling leader groveling to the Saudis in order to get them to pump more oil.  Granted that Biden's trip to the Middle East was ostensibly to bolster relationships with Arab and Israeli leaders in a volatile region, but the American public is demanding lower gasoline prices and Biden's approval rating is partially dependent on achieving that.  We will know soon enough whether he succeeded, but he will need help if he didn't. He is already seen in the eyes of the public as an ineffectual leader.  

One of the perils of being President is that he takes the blame for the economy should it go sour.  This is what is happening now in a period of soaring inflation.   It doesn't matter to the public that a President has little or no control over the economy.  He can jawbone producers but that does little good.  He can let the economy slip into recession to stop price rises, but that works against his chances for running again.  He can point at others as the cause but that doesn't work.  The message to the public pumping gas is that he isn't doing anything about it, so it is his fault.  Biden committed his own gaffe with the current rise in prices.  He said that inflation had peaked months ago.  It hadn't nor had COVID when he declared it dead a year ago.  His timing is terrible, and the public is holding it against him.  Where is he now that the new inflation numbers have come out?  In Israel.  Once more, it appears that he doesn't care when he surely does.  

A protestor interrupted President Biden's event around the signing of the new gun law.  Predictably, the dissident received the news focus and Biden once again was frustrated.  He is a President who can't catch a break when it comes to communicating to the public.  Even set-piece situations like this one become grounds for disruption.  If Biden were a more forceful President would it have made a difference?  Probably not.  The country is riven, and there is small respect for authority and high office.  The best Biden can do is to keep talking and hope his message gets through.  So far, it hasn't.  

President Biden's approval rating has sunk to new lows, and he can't seem to catch a break.  Whatever he is doing and communicating from the White House, it's not working.  He can't seem to project an image that he is in charge.  Rather, he seems to follow and be late in everything he does.  Biden insists he will run again, but his own party doesn't want him.  Most Democrats are wishing that he steps down rather than campaigning as the oldest president in American history.  Is there time to turn his Presidency around?  Probably, but not before the Midterms when Republicans are expecting to swamp the vote.  To be fair, the President took office at a perilous time in American and world events.  We have lurched from one catastrophe to another, but Presidents don't get to choose the course of their office.  They are expected to handle whatever comes their way.  Biden hasn't and isn't -- not so far anyway. 

Boris Johnson, the prime minister of the UK, is demonstrating the art of the survivor.   Time and again, predictions have been made of his imminent fall from power.  Yet he stays in office.  This time, two ministers have quit and a group of junior officers.  There are those who are saying he can't continue through that.  Yet, he is trying.  His message is that of the cockroach.  No matter what happens, he endures.  From a PR perspective, he is an autocrat who doesn't listen to what the public is saying about him.  His grip on power is all that matters.  It was the same with former President Trump.  He refused to accept that he lost and sparked an insurrection to stay in power.  Such people are dangerous to democracy and should be stripped of their offices.

A Republican candidate for Illinois governor has stepped on a hornet's nest because his message to the public after a mass shooting was dumb.   In a statement released hours after the murder of six people during a July 4th parade, he wrote, "Let’s move on and celebrate the independence of this nation."  It seemed as if the dead didn't matter and the horror of the gun-down could be easily dismissed.  Predictably, the candidate faced an intense blowback and he apologized.  But, the damage was done.  Voters won't soon forget a lack of empathy from a politician and the candidate will need to work to offset the harm he caused to his race for office.  One wonders who his PR people are that they let such a statement slip through.  Maybe, he wasn't listening to them.