by Rika Nurrahmah, rikanurrahmah@gmail.com
Think of the urgency for public relations to master the art of swift communication like you would with a domestic accident: Oreo the cat falls dizzy and pukes in a hidden corner of your living room carpet. Your mother is having a bad day, so over fear of her motherly wrath, you wrestle over the dilemma of telling her about the accident.
While staring over the slimy mess, you discover that your little brother also witnessed the mess. Realizing the role of responsibility in the household, he gives you an ultimatum that if you don't take him to the local skate park for the day, he'll tell your mom a warped story on how you saw Oreo puking and vocally professed to do nothing about it.
As the master of communication and crisis management, the best thing to do is to immediately approach your mother and report Oreo's puke pie to her, and do it with as much truthfulness as possible. It will also leave mother indignant, because she's left on all fours vigorously scrubbing away.
Remember when the Lipitor ad scandal involving Dr. Jarvik, the inventor of the artificial heart, and a looming suspicion of paid endorsement broke in 2006? Having the inventor repeatedly dodge answering questions on the details of his endorsement on news outlets like Good Morning America worked in no favor to the company's PR camp. If you kept things on the hush and let the pile settle, then it'll dry up and become one heck of a headache to remove from carpet. Ultimately, Lipitor dropped Dr. Jarvik, who famously said "when diet and exercise isn't enough," from the Lipitor ads, but the lag in action leaves many wondering why this couldn't have been done any sooner.
The infamous Lipitor ad.
In relations to public relations, the longer it takes to respond to a crisis, the stickier the mess and thus, the harder it is to resolve it. You want to act fact because a news publication is like your little brother: if they disclose the news before you do, you and the company you represented will not be seen under a positive light by the public eye. A no brainer, yes, but a practice that often slips into the cracks when a crisis comes to play.
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