Crisis (Mis) Management

The phone rang with news that my client, Callum, had just been fired from his job as the marketing manager of a well known brand of packaged cheese. I was surprised. What had Callum done? Apparently he’d disobeyed his company’s golden rule that all media enquiries must be referred to the PR company.

Callum believed he was more expert than the experts. And I knew he had a low opinion of the “hacks” at the company’s PR agency. Callum saw himself as something of the “brand personality” and was frustrated that the PR company always stood between him and the bright lights of the media.

Earlier that morning a customer claimed to have discovered a small amount of glass embedded in a block of the company’s cheese. Instead of calling the company, the customer had called the local talk-back radio station with the news. Soon after, a journalist from the radio station phoned up my client’s company asking to speak to the marketing manager of the cheese brand in question and was put through to Callum. The journalist informed Callum that he was recording the call with the aim of getting comment to broadcast in the next news bulletin.

This was Callum’s moment. A chance to show the world cool, calm and confident leadership in the face of a crisis.

A chance to show those PR hacks how it’s done.

Callum had been unaware of the “glass” issue until the journalist called. But he instinctively knew he needed to say something that would hose down the issue. That’s when he issued the following fateful soundbite:

“This is really no big deal. Things like this happen all the time”.

 

 

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The day we nearly killed the Dulux dog

This was a typical Dulux ad. You know the kind, nice painted house gets exposed to a dramatic range of weather from driving rain to harsh summer sun. Despite all this, the house endures to look as fresh as the day it was painted – thanks to Dulux Weathershield.

The location search came up with a with a nice painted timber house on Mt Macedon just outside Melbourne. To me, the shoot seemed like it would be pretty straight forward – just a day in the country to watch some interesting “extreme weather” special effects being created. And all within easy reach of a well stocked catering truck.

Of course, the star of the show was the Dulux dog – a living advertising icon. This shoot was going to be easy for the Dulux dog. All he had to do was romp across the back lawn in the final scene and sit by a kennel, which was also painted in Dulux Weathershield. He’d been training weeks for this scene at his Sydney home with his handler and a mock kennel.

The dog arrived from the airport mid-morning, though his scene wasn’t till the afternoon. So he spent the hours napping in his cage while the crew got on with shooting the weather special effects. The dog’s handler advised we should try and film the dog in one take as soon as he’s released from his cage. This was supposed to be when we’d get the most frisky reaction from the dog as he bounded across the lawn from cage to kennel.

Despite being on the side of Mt Macedon, the back lawn, where we were filming, was flat as it’d been terraced and was supported by large retaining wall. There was quite a drop over the retaining wall – and with no fencing of any kind we were all wary of going too close to the edge of the lawn for fear of falling over the retaining wall cliff.

Time came to release the Dulux dog for his scene. The camera was rolling as the dog’s cage was opened and he leapt out. Having spent most of the day caged and napping he was particularly frisky and bounded beautifully across the lawn towards the kennel as trained.

But then, he departed from script.

Arriving at the kennel, the Dulux dog barely paused. Instead of sitting by the kennel, he obviously decided there was too much to explore in this new location. He continued bounding across the lawn towards the edge of the cliff – only he didn’t seem to realise it was a cliff – one with a drop equivalent to jumping off the roof of a one storey house. Through his hair covered eyes the ledge probably looked like a garden step – that’s if he could see anything at all.

To everyone’s shock, the Dulux dog took a suicide-like leap off the cliff and disappeared from view. A dull thud followed a moment later – and then silence.

The Dulux dog had to be dead. Or worse, lying in a bloody heap with shattered bones waiting for one of us to put him out of his misery. And how would we do that? I didn’t know of any guns on the property. I imagined having to smash the Dulux dog over the head with one of the rocks lying around. Or perhaps using a piece of production equipment, like a heavy C-stand would be cleaner? And then what? What about the ad? How would we finish it now? And what about the PR fall out from this? What possible positive spin could there be? How would “He died doing something he loved” sound?

And then, like an apparition, an Old English Sheep Dog came scrambling up a nearby rocky escarpment and back on to the lawn. Incredibly, he seemed completely uninjured from his cliff dive. Maybe just a bit shaken and bewildered.

Soon the Dulux dog was back in his first position by the cage to do a few more takes. The second and third takes were great and the dog seemed fine – only now, like the rest of us, he stayed well away from the edge of the lawn.

(If you haven’t already watched it, above is the long hidden video of take 1 – the Dulux dog’s “death dive”).

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