I wrote yesterday that branding happens, whether you set out to build a brand or not.
A corollary to this is that how you tell your story can just happen, too, unless you intentionally set out to pick the best possible words and story.
Some people cynically refer to this as spinning, and do so to malign the PR profession. Apparently there is only one unvarnished version of "the truth," just waiting to be misshapen by evil flacks.
Well, news flash, the world is a bit more complicated than that. And there is no better example of the power of words and a good story – and the high stakes that can be involved, and importance of getting your story right – than the current credit crisis, and our lawmakers' attempts to find a way out of the mess.
Some have said that the plan (note I am intentionally not using a modifier here) was doomed from the start because Paulson could not sell it. I am sure his image as a swashbuckling titan of high finance did not endear him to a public that is getting increasingly disgusted with the excesses of Wall Street.
The NY Times said yesterday:
When the Bush administration announced its $700 billion plan to shore up the nation's shaky financial system, Treasury Secretary Paulson called it the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Everyone else called it the bailout. And, from that point on, its fate may have been set.
The article went on:
Since he unveiled the phrase on Sept. 19, it was used in just 23
television talk shows or public hearings transcribed in the Nexis
database. By contrast, a Nexis search found 508 mentions of the phrase
“Wall Street bailout” in that period.
In another article Lessons from a Credit Crisis: When Trust Vanishes, Worry, the Times said:
But there is good reason for the public’s skepticism. The experts and
policy makers who so desperately want to take action have failed to
tell a compelling story about why they’re so afraid.
When Bush decided to get personally involved in selling the program, his words were derided as a PR tactic in the Times article President Bush Calls it a Rescue, But Others are Sticking with Bailout.
In a stark example of the way language is used as a public relations
tactic, Mr. Bush and other government officials have characterized the
measure in positive terms — “rescue plan” and “asset relief program” —
thereby carefully avoiding more loaded words like “bailout.”
The media, by and large, did not follow Mr. Bush’s lead. On Sunday, a Google
News search conjured more than 157,000 results for “bailout,” and only
42,000 for “rescue plan.”
The terminology of the financial crisis
is particularly important because of the emotions the words can stir in
readers and listeners. The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper, suggested
that the bailout label was a “major reason why constituents flooded
Capitol Hill offices with phone calls and e-mails, overwhelmingly
urging lawmakers to reject it.”
An interesting perspective: the President's words are a PR tactic, yet the word choice of those fighting the plan are not?
Some portrayed the failure of Congress to act as a crisis in leadership, and evidence of Bush's low popularity and waning power. I think it was also an object lesson in what can happen if you don't get the story right.
