Does Everyone Deserve a Defence?
by Miriam Hanna, Director MadlinHanna Consulting
The Great Hack is a Netflix documentary that takes a look at Cambridge Analytica’s involvement in elections and referenda around the world. After Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony to Congress, Cambridge Analytica (and not Facebook!) had a reputational disaster with relentless negative press across the world. The COO/CFO at the time Julian Wheatland said something which really surprised me: "I learned many things from that period. I learned, for example, that when you're in a PR crisis the one thing you can't hire is a PR crisis company” He goes on to share how several firms were approached and decided that the account was too risky to their own reputations to take on.
The Aftermath of Bell Pottinger
Since the collapse of Bell Pottinger in September 2017 the industry has done a lot of self-examination, particularly those that are members of the PRCA. However, it is important to note that Bell Pottinger weren’t expelled from the PRCA because of the presence of the Oakbay account, they were expelled for the work they did stirring racial tensions as part of the campaign. There is a very big difference. Has the experience of that agency made others fearful of taking on “controversial” accounts and should it?
Two sides to the story
In this instance, there wasn’t much that Cambridge Analytica could have said that would persuade the court of public opinion that they weren’t an obscene capitalist business disturbing the democratic process. However, with the right support from a communications perspective, they could have taken the narrative forward to discuss regulation, legislation and transparency for example. As Wheatland said, “we didn’t have a voice”. Even if we whole-heartedly disagree with what a business does and stands for, they still deserve the forum to have their say don’t they?
Redemption
There was a way to redemption in my view and it was before Clarence Mitchell got involved when the business had their back up against the wall. We have seen instances where survival has been possible by firing senior executives and rebranding. I am not suggesting that Cambridge Analytica should have been allowed to carry on functioning as they were and harvesting personal data without permission but for legislation to keep up with technological developments, law-makers need to work with those innovating these processes. Without proper communications support, this was never going to be possible.
The big question remains. Is it right that tens of PR firms that work in crisis communications were approached to support Cambridge Analytica and didn’t want to because of the risk to their own reputation? Isn’t that what they are there for?
MadlinHanna Consulting is a recruitment consultancy specialising in corporate affairs, covering public affairs, corporate communications and financial PR. Contact us on 020 8088 4102 for more information or a confidential conversation.