Author: Jim Horton

This was an international practical joke that still has people scratching their heads. Moments after a contemporary artist’s painting was sold for $1.4 million, it was partially shredded as it dropped from its frame. Call it Banksy’s nose-thumbing at the art world and over-priced paintings.  From a PR perspective, it was a statement that couldn’t be missed, and it generated publicity around the globe. No other artists have tried anything so provocative and chances are they wouldn’t. It is hard enough to get sales at any price. That Banksy could destroy one of his own works to make a point is breathtaking. The odd outcome of the mockery is that his work may even become more valuable as a result.

One good work of PR is to turn a spotlight onto deserving individuals who work in shadows. This is what the MacArthur Grants do, and here is this year’s group of winners. They are an eclectic mix of science, arts and social activism, but all do important work that distinguishes them in their fields if not in society at large. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has defined a niche for itself with its constant search for “geniuses” who show creativity and “potential for future achievements.”  No other organization can make that claim. It is a wonderful gift to society and one that burnishes the reputations of not only the winners but of the foundation itself. The annual publicity for the awards is not as large as that for Nobel winners but the Nobels have been around for many decades and the MacArthur Grants have not. In time, MacArthur should catch up.

We know people lie, sometimes intentionally and at other times through a quirk in personal psychology. Here is a case in which the American public is lying about its preference for fast food.  It is not that they intentionally try to mislead. They really believe they are paying attention to healthier options for eating when they aren’t. It is a quandary for communicators who need to address issues when the public at large has a misperception of what they are. One must start first by correcting the record. “You say you do X, but you really don’t.” This is a hard task because people don’t like to be told they are wrong. But, if a communicator doesn’t take on the job, the fiction continues and reality and lie stand side by side. The public has blinded itself to the truth and is perfectly happy to live in a world of its own making.

President Trump built his reputation on his entrepreneurial savvy, but now it seems he got his money from his father after all. A New York Times investigation into the Trump family’s finances shows tax finagling writ large and avoidance of inheritance tax a major concern. This is not surprising. Rich men don’t like to pay taxes any more than the rest of us. What is notable is that the Trump fiction lasted for so long in the public eye. Were he not President, no newspaper would have dedicated a year’s worth of investigative reporting to find out his fund sources. Now, Trump has to live down his tale of personal success and his overweening self-praise for his business prowess. Trump is furious, and why shouldn’t he be? He has been shown to have clay feet.

NASA, SpaceX and numerous other companies are flogging the possibility of deep space travel to Mars. But, problems in doing so keep cropping up and here is another one. Sending astronauts on long journeys is likely to destroy their intestines and give them cancers. There is no effective shielding today from injurious rays that would affect them. This is not surprising. The human body is not made for space, and traveling off this planet means carrying everything with one to survive. The barriers so far do not appear to be insuperable, but the question arises again why NASA and others are so anxious to launch man into space when robots are so effective in doing the job. Nevertheless, the publicity continues.

Walmart and other major fresh food suppliers are taking a major step to alleviate a perennial crisis – contaminated food.  hey are implementing a blockchain network that tracks fruits and vegetables from farm to store. The software has reduced the time it takes to find the origin of injurious product from seven days to 2.2 seconds. Moreover, it cuts down on the wastage of food that has been the answer to contamination up to the present. If romaine lettuce caused illness, stores would remove all romaine from their shelves even though most of it was OK. Now, they will only trash that which has been identified as the source of illness. This will save time, injury and money. It will also make PR practitioners’ lives easier in managing communications for recalls. The new system is easier all the way around. Kudos to all the companies that have made this possible.

Bump stocks, devices that turn semi-automatic rifles into machine guns, gained a horrid name in the Las Vegas massacre a year ago. There is no excuse for them and they should have been federally banned. A year later, they are still being sold in 40 states and there doesn’t appear to be a movement to get rid of them. If nothing else, this shows the limits of publicity. The shooting in Las Vegas was international news and covered for days. The bump stock was featured prominently in the stories. Revulsion was universal. Calls for regulation blared once again. Nothing happened except in 10 states that saw fit to ban them. One can call Congress feckless but that would be too simple. There is no national will expressed in voting and activism. That takes hard work of building coalitions, grassroots organizing, petitions and lobbying. In the face of opposition from the National Rifle Association, this will never be easy and failure will be common, but if the public keeps at it, it will eventually succeed.

Amazon.com has been blistered in reporting and on social media for its pay scale for warehouse workers. It has just announced a raise for its employees. The increase of two to four percent was at best a small step and will hardly dent Amazon’s profits. Most certainly it will not stop criticism of its wages. Bezos has long been known as frugal when it comes to remuneration, and it might over time be a differentiation between a successful company and a struggling retailer. Should Amazon’s workers decide to unionize and strike, they can quickly shut the company down.  Poor pay is a prime reason for adverse action. Look for pay scales to continue as a weak point for the company in terms of reputation and credibility.

One painful crisis for a company is when an employee sabotages its product and services. That is why this instance hurts. The worker was clearly trying to get fired by spitting into food while being filmed, but that makes no difference to appalled customers and the company itself. What motivates a person to take such awful action. If he was unhappy, he should have quit without making a case of it. Business can’t protect itself from every erroneous action by employees. It has to trust they will carry out their tasks according to established procedures. If that trust is missing. a business is forced to shut down. It can’t guarantee customers they will get a product or service as promised. The ball park ex-employee is going to be prosecuted according to the law but that is small comfort to fans who are left to wonder what is in their food.

The UK’s Labour Party is proposing that as much as 10 percent of companies’ shares be set aside for employee ownership and as many as a third of board seats be reserved for employee directors. The British chambers of commerce predictably opposed the plan. The idea, however, is interesting. It has been widely discussed that workers have not seen the fruits of fat earnings from companies in this expansion. Wages have barely risen although stocks and dividends have. Companies are rewarding owners over labor, so why not make labor owners as well? It would serve to deflect much of the criticism that corporations are experiencing. Labour’s idea should be studied further.