Larger the life, bigger the damage control: CBC vs. Peter Nygard

Nygard may make hats as part of their fashion line, but that doesn’t mean they get to tip them – at least not when it comes to their public relations.

This week, Nicki and I gave our ‘Tip of the Hat/Wag of the Finger’ presentation about a recent PR issue, and whether the organization in question did an effective/ineffective job in responding.

I’ve decided to use this blog post to add to the conversation and contribute my voice to the many that are already out there warning others to think carefully about supporting the Nygard brand.

The Facts

Peter Nygard is a fashion designer and chairman of women’s clothing manufacturer Nygard International.

Recognized as a Canadian rags-to-riches story, Nygard had rather humble beginnings growing up in Deloraine, Manitoba, but is now a regular on the list of most wealthiest Canadians with a net worth of $817 million in 2009.

The Issue

CBC's The Fifth Estate.

In April 2010, the CBC program The Fifth Estate aired a documentary about Peter Nygard’s treatment of employees, specifically, about workplace bullying and harassment.

It featured a number of interviews with former employees who talked about their experiences with verbal abuse, sexual harassment, fines, and work permits, among other things. (To learn more, watch the full documentary here.)

It was a serious, and damaging revelation that showed a darker side to someone who was otherwise thought to be creative, business savvy, and generous businessman, albeit with expensive tastes and a large ego.

That’s not to say some damage control couldn’t have been done. But the controversial nature of the documentary, plus Nygard’s attempts to cover it up, made for one hot PR issue.

The (Bad) Response

Nygard immediately went into offensive mode, filing a lawsuit against CBC in Manitoba to prevent the documentary from airing. They also launched a copyright complaint against CBC journalist David Commons for footage taken at Nygard’s Manhatten store opening. Both of these, of course, only fueled public interest in the documentary.

Nygard’s lawyers didn’t help matters either – rather than addressing the issue directly, their statements tried to elicit sympathy for the company, saying the fiasco was creating problems for a company already in difficult times.

“This has caused an enormous amount of damage to our client at a time when management personnel should be devoting all their energies to protecting the business and its employee from the effects of the economic recession”. (Richard Good, Nygard lawyer, Winnipeg Free Press)

Employees who spoke out were also targeted. Dana Neal, a human resources executive, told the CBC about a PR employee from Nygard who took his girlfriend out to lunch and tried to intimidate him into not releasing information by threatening to ‘take away [their] house”. He, and two other employees were also sued by the company for going public.

The crackdown on information about the documentary also extended online where blog posts quickly popped up, criticizing Nygard and giving CBC the thumbs up.

Suspicious comments – which many bloggers claim to be from Nygard employees – started appearing on these posts, speaking positively about Peter Nygard and generally contridicting the documentary’s claims.

A Facebook page encouraging people to boycott Nygard was eventually shut down by Nygard’s lawyers, supposedly for ‘infringing on intellectual property rights’. (Lilith News)

The (Better) Response

Though it’s hard to find the silvering lining in these kinds of PR nightmares, some form of damage control is always possible.

In the class discussion following our presentation, many people noted that getting Nygard to admit his anger management issues (among other things) and publicly stating that he will seek treatment for it is a method that has worked for high profile celebrities in the past.

Though it doesn’t solve all the problems, owning up to mistakes and taking an active step towards fixing them will gain some respect from the public and help stem the flow of negative media attention.

All Aboard!: a documentary

As much as I love – and am currently majoring in– public relations, I have a soft spot for the visual arts.

I’ve always dabbled in photography but nothing thrills me more than taking moving pictures with a professional grade camera.

It was a no-brainer for me to enroll in the TV Documentary course this term and I am incredibly excited to be finally filming my first real vérité-style doc.

And what better time to jump into it than during my spring break? For the next few days I’ll be filming a model railroad show at the Forks Market hosted by WinNTrack, a group of local railroad enthusiasts. These guys spend countless hours building elaborate and expensive displays with amazingly intricate detail so I’m curious to find out where this passion comes from and why it’s so important to them.

Many of these hobbyists come from a variety of backgrounds not associated with trains, like education, construction, sales, music, and the military, so it will be interesting to see how much they had to learn – everything from how tracks operate, to how to paint decals and design trees (which, I’m told, there are multiple ways of doing).

I had the opportunity to film the initial set-up yesterday evening and was surprised

how seriously these people take their craft, and how much effort goes in to making everything run smoothly. It was like Santa’s workshop with all the little elves running around hammering boards and tightening screws with the aid of flashlights and head lamps.

I also caught a glimpse of the miniature cars and fully operational mini railroad crossing – complete with tiny flashing lights – that will be going full force for the rest of the weekend. I’m a sucker for extreme close-ups and rack focusing so this subject suits me to a T.

I can’t wait to tell their story.

Good taste in PR: Ciao!'s Dine About Winnipeg

As every PR practitioner knows, when you plan an event strategicially one of the first things you do is a SWOT (or strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis.

And as every Winnipeg PR practitioner knows, when you plan an event from December-February, you must be prepared to deal with the weather problem.

The big -40 windchill, skin freezes in five minutes, car won’t start, streets are like skating rinks problem. It’s no wonder the restaurant industry is slow at this time of year.

When winter arrives in Manitoba, many people simply batten down the hatches and wait for the big thaw.

And that’s precisely why Ciao! magazine’s annual Dine About Winnipeg is such a smart – and very popular – event.

February in Winnipeg is still frighteningly cold, but its been two months already and the

batten-down-the-hatches folk are starting to get a little cabin fever.

They’re looking for something to get them out of the house (and preferrably into another warm building) and Ciao! sweetens the deal with something else Winnipeggers are known for – being.... ‘economical’.

For ten days in February, a number of local restaurants (26 this year) offer a three-course, set price menu for either $25 or $35. Many of these are in the mid to high range entrees, so you’re sure to get the best value for your money.

Yesterday I went to Fusion Grill and indulged in:

Hush Puppies with quinoa, cornmeal and John Russell honey garlic dip

Grilled bison petite tender with grainy mustard rub, Fort Garry beer-battered onion rings, Bothwell chedder potato gratin, smoked garlic aioli and demi-glace

Warm Granny Smith apple crumble with flax seed topping, Screech, cinnamon, caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream

At my house we do most of our own cooking from scratch, so when we do want to dine out, we don’t often know where the newest and tastiest restaurants are.

Dine About has remedied some of that. Although we didn’t visit a lot of restaurants during those ten days, getting a peek at the various menus has given us a good idea about which ones we’d like to visit in the future (ie. spring/summer).

It’s a great example of taking a significant weakness and turning it into a strength for the restaurant industry during one of their least profitable seasons. In other words, taking lemons and making lemonade.

Thanks Ciao! for your great taste, and great promotional PR.

Egypt’s ‘citizen journalists’: whose voice do you want to hear?

I don’t normally take an interest in international conflicts as much as I have in the one happening now in Egypt.

It piques my curiosity because a country which I had previously thought to be relatively stable is now erupting in chaos.

I’m also amazed at how organised the protestors are in getting their message out and how quickly they adapt to different mediums when the Internet and cell phone service is shut down.

When the Internet is up, however – look out! It seems to me this whole event is increasing awareness of how powerful social media is beyond the pointless status updates (something that, of course, us CreComms have studied and known all along).

CBC did a feature this past week on the role of social media in the Egyptian crisis which gives a good summary on the topic. What's really interesting is the host's comment right at the end of the feature: “It’s incredible – the technology has made almost everyone into citizen journalists.”

I’m not a journalism major, but I did my time learning the ways for a year, and I’ll admit a part of me cringed at the comment coming from none other than a professional journalist.

This is a subject we’ve broached many times in some of my classes – whether social media is weakening the quality of journalism and turning anyone with an opinion and an Internet connection into a ‘citizen journalist’.

I recently started following Nahla Ayed (CBC), Sonia Verma (G&M), and Nick Kristof (NYT) on Twitter – all of them professional journalists accredited by their respective media stations to provide reports from Egypt.

I suppose I chose to follow them because they were easily accessible (I found Sonia Verma’s account after reading about her detainment on the G&M site) – I wouldn’t know where to find an English-language Twitter feed from an everyday Egyptian (suggestions?).

But I also realise that in the unrelenting chatter that is today’s social media, I still rely on the ‘real’ journalists: those who know how to keep an ear to the ground and are trained to filter out the most important stories from the many that are out there (an arguable point, obviously). It is also these abilities that, among other things, are currently making journalists targets for the country’s pro-government supporters.

As the situation escalates in Egypt, whose voice do you want to hear reporting it?

When the real world comes knocking

All good things come to an end – and so it is with CreComm.

During the past three weeks I got a chance to see what that ‘end’ (which hopefully includes a job) could potentially look like.

For me, that meant working as an intern for the provincial government in their communications/writing department.

I wrote a lot of stuff, went to a few places, and met a bunch of very nice people willing to share some advice with an aspiring PR practitioner.

Getting up-close and personal with the province's new Amphibex at my first outdoor news conference - thanks Paul!

It was a great opportunity to gain some insight into the inner workings of our province and build up my portfolio with some published pieces.

It also gave me time to think – without the pressure of making money – about what would make the perfect job.

Work

Being in CreComm for nearly two years has taught me how to efficiently work on multiple assignments that exercise different parts of the brain all at the same time. It’s stressful, it’s exhausting, and it’s life-consuming; but when it’s not there, I miss it.

As an intern, my primary task was writing and editing anything that came across my desk: news releases, brochures, web content, letters, etc. I was never writing about the same topic, and quickly became well-versed in a number of things. (Need to know about EIA (Employment & Income Assistance), renting with pets, or water turbidity? That’s me!)

On the other hand, I was using the same skills over and over. In the end, I realised I like being a generalist, not a specialist.

Workload

At my work placement, I was fairly busy, but not too busy to take a decent break for lunch and a quick walk – which I needed, being at a desk most of the day.

When I got to shadow a few of the communications coordinators, I noticed that sometimes lunch break wasn’t even on the agenda, or the 15 minute walk for coffee would have to wait. I was, however, a bit jealous of how often their work took them beyond the desk – out scouting locations or attending meetings elsewhere.

I also still haven’t come close to deciding where I stand with BlackBerries. All of the coordinators I met had the standard BB and almost all were constantly monitoring them for incoming news (even at staff meetings... um!)

The good side to these devices is you don’t have to be tied to a desk to do your work. The bad side is that your work follows you everywhere.

Everyone I spoke to said there is a fine balance to deciding when you will answer a call/email/text, and at what time of night you turn the phone off. I don’t want to be tied to a desk all day, but I also don’t want to be a slave to my BB (or preferably iPhone).

Work environment

I’ve been to many a typical government and corporate office before, so the neutral coloured walls and furniture, cubicle mazes, few windows, and (I’m biased!) PC computers with Microsoft OS didn’t surprise me, but it did make me think about how it could affect my work.

When I started my program at Red River College Princess Street Campus, I immediately felt my creativity jump a few notches simply by being in more visually interesting surroundings. I’m always amazed at how texture, colour, and the appearance of open spaces can make people in the room feel more energized and inspired.

I love homes and offices with well designed interiors that foster good working conditions both physically and mentally, and definitely believe it’ll be a deciding factor with some of the jobs I take in the future.

Corporate interview: Greg Burch, MTS Allstream

For the final TV assignment of the year, us PR majors were told to grab a camera, and go do some networking: find a communications professional willing to take the time to sit under some the bright lights and answer questions from a couple of students.

It was a great opportunity to get to ask people in the public relations profession just how they got to where they are today, and what sort of things us soon-to-be-grads should do to prepare for getting a job in communications.

This was by far the most challenging of our TV assignments, mainly because of the time pressures – there simply was no time to re-do a shot. It also tested all of our production skills: shooting, audio, and lighting, the latter two which are still pretty new to us and made more difficult by the fact that you want to appear to know what you’re doing, especially when your interviewee could be a potential employer!

That being said, Lennie and myself got an amazing grade for our hard work and it actually turned out quite well! (See for yourself below.) So if anyone out there is looking to produce a corporate video, there are two eager producers right here, and here!

Thanks again to Greg Burch and MTS Allstream for allowing us to film them and drag our carload of equipment all around the building!

Time to get your ducks in a row: crisis comm gone wrong

Photo credit: Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle

As public relations majors, me and my classmates are encouraged to take note of PR issues as they come up in the daily news.

This week, I gave a presentation on one of the more interesting areas of PR: crisis communication, especially when it goes wrong, and especially when it involves cute little ducks getting covered in oil and drowning.

I give you Syncrude and their duck deaths.

The Facts on Syncrude:

Oil company based in Fort McMurray, Alberta, in the Athabasca Oil Sands. They are one of the largest producers of oil from the oil sands.

Part of their company vision is to be “a good corporate citizen, a social leader, protector of the environment, and champion of high safety and ethics standards.”

Both of their mining sites (Mildred Lake, Aurora) have tailings ponds: basins containing residue from oil extraction process, including bitumen, a black tar-like substance.

These tailings ponds are open-air, meaning birds can and do land on them, with fatal results.

Photo credit: Todd Powell, Fish and Wildlife Division of the Alberta Government.

Syncrude, like other oil companies, have measures in place - “waterfowl deterrents” - like air cannons, scarecrows, and personnel to monitor the ponds, to ward off birds.

The Issue:

April 28th, 2008: 1,606 ducks die after landing on Syncrude’s Aurora tailings pond. They fail to report the incident to the Alberta government (anonymous tip notifies Alberta Environment, Syncrude confirms hours later), and an internal employee email is leaked to the Calgary Herald, telling employees to alert the company of “unusual activity”, overhead flights, and to allow no photography on site.

No TV crews, no reporters, no pictures.

Spring/Fall 2010: Syncrude is finally in court facing a provincial and federal charge. New facts come to light;

More ducks died: Originally said 500 in 2008, as opposed to 1,606. Syncrude knew this fact months prior to the court case but didn’t release it as it was part of the investigation.

Deterrents weren’t working: Staff had been cut prior to the incidents, and deterrents were delayed by bad weather. The worst? At that time, Syncrude’s deterrents only worked on weekdays. Since this occurred on a weekend, the ducks were on their own.

Syncrude pleaded not guilty, tried to have the judge dismissed, and fought the two charges because they were “too similar”. Eventually, on October 22, they agreed to pay $3 million. Three days later...

October 26, 2010: 350 ducks die after landing on Syncrude’s Mildred Lake tailings pond. They report the incident to the government, and say their deterrents weren’t working but freezing rain was possibly to blame.

Communication: What they did

Spoke to media, but emphasized effect on company and employees. Tom Katinas, President and CEO of Syncrude in 2008:

"I want to apologize for this terribly sad event that happened on our site. It is a stain on the good reputation that Syncrude has earned over its many years of good operations... It's been particularly sad and embarrassing for me, personally, for the employees of Syncrude and for all the stakeholders in this great company of ours." CBC News.

Avoided responsibility by pleading not guilty in 2008, and blaming the weather in both 2008 and 2010.

Placed full page ads in local and national newspapers apologizing for “the incident that caused... birds to die”. A critical eye would read an “incident” acting independently and having nothing to do with Syncrude “caused... birds to die” which just so happened to be on their pond.

Communication: What they should have done

1. Allow photos and access to site. Otherwise, it implies that you have something to hide, and when photos do leak - and they will - it will make the issue even bigger than it really is.

2. Tell the truth, tell it all, tell it first. Basic, key rules of crisis communication that will make your company look honest, and organized, while keeping out of the mainstream media too often.

3. Don’t cause a fuss in court. It only makes it look like you’re more concerned about damage to your company as opposed to the damage you caused - which may be true, but not a good thing to tell the public.

4. Give a presentation on the topic and hand out duck-themed cupcakes! :

Photo credit: Lennie Eulalia