Month: April 2018

It is a bad idea and poor PR to ignore a regulator. This is what happens.  The company, Triangle Pharmaceuticals, blew off the FDA’s requests for a recall of their kratom herbal supplement. The FDA wasn’t worried about kratom, itself a controversial remedy, but about salmonella food poisoning, which had contaminated the ingredients. Who knows why Triangle refused to cooperate? They are now the subject of an unprecedented mandatory recall and the weight of the government is on their shoulders. They are also a case study in poor PR. They put customers at risk by not complying and they have given themselves a bad name. If the company survives, and that is questionable, they had better not do it again.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post, is being verbally assaulted these days, but he hardly should be worried. The attacker is President Trump, and as usual, the President has his facts wrong. The criticism has hit the price of the stock, but that should be passing as the financial community, the public and politicians understand how wrong Trump is. Most companies have been put into a penalty box unjustly at some point in their history. This is where PR comes to the fore — defense using facts to counter rumor, error and misstatements. Bezos has yet to publicly rebuke the President, and he might not need to. The media are doing a credible job for him. It is a tremendous help when the press supports one’s contentions. It is even better when the attacker has no credibility.

Sinclair Broadcast Group is receiving criticism for having its approximately 200 local TV stations read “a message about bias and fake stories in news outlets.”  It is seen as a pro-Trump move since Trump inveighs frequently about fake news. Sinclair, the critics say, is flexing its conservative political muscle and there is a general alarm. Critics forget that in his day, William Randolph Hearst, a media mogul, reached one in four Americans with his newspapers, syndicates, magazines and newsreels. Hearst took every opportunity to promote his agenda and to blast opponents such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Hearst didn’t succeed, and eventually his empire shrank. Give the public some credit for an ability to see through what a medium is doing, especially when other reporters point it out as they did this time. Sinclair has produced a PR faux pas, and it has put journalists on alert to examine its pronouncements and actions. Not a good way to operate.

Tim Cook of Apple and Mark Zuckerberg aren’t getting along. The two are sniping at one another through the news media. Cook says Apple wouldn’t have been put in the position of losing customer data since it doesn’t monetize users’ information. Cook is calling for increased regulation. Zuckerberg is defending Facebook’s advertising model and merchandising of personal data. There doesn’t seem to be a way to get the two of them on the same side. There is an increased chance the government will regulate corporations now that privacy has come to the fore, and a company was using customer information to sway the last election. It is a major PR issue for Facebook and Google and the advertising model on the internet. Tech industry executives need a unified front, but they are unlikely to get it. Look for regulators to have their way.