PR Furblog

ROSS FURLONG

Back in the balmy financial days of June I was bemoaning on this blog the absence of Mandelson and Campbell and the general decline of the spin doctor. All hell breaks lose politically and financially and suddenly they're back, Campbell masterminding Brown's speech at the Labour conference and Mandelson returning from european exile to number 10. I guess there's nothing like a crisis to make PRs feel needed.

Of course In the business world, many large companies have crisis PR strategies and dedicated agencies for the task in place for if the worst happens - to manage their shareprice and protect their brand. Disasterously the US & UK governments don't seem to have had anything of the sort in place and so we've been treated to an unrelenting tide of negative coverage punctuated by occasional unconvincing statements of action by politicians while the world's stock continues to fall off a cliff.

An hour ago Mervyn King at The Bank of England released a statement designed to ease fears on the PA website. Predictably, his release headlined 'Bank loan move to help ease crisis' became the negative and emotive 'British banks bailed out' on the BBC.

So this leads to two 'systemic' PR issues the government needs to correct if we ever get out of this mess. Where was this statement and others of its kind two weeks ago and how much responsibility does the media bear for talking us into more of mess than we'd otherwise be in.