There’s an old axiom in politics and in life: When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
Evidently Susan G. Komen for the Cure is unfamiliar with the rule. It wasn’t enough that they hired someone sworn to take down Planned Parenthood. It wasn’t enough to let that person dictate a politically inspired move to withdraw funding from Planned Parenthood. It wasn’t enough that they lied about the funding decision. And it wasn’t enough that they finally fessed up, apologized, and restored the funding — for this year, anyway.
Nope. Rather than enjoy the publicity lull that has followed that debacle, they’ve now decided to pay a PR firm to conduct a survey on how they can repair the damage and restore their reputation. Seriously. Rather than maintain a low profile and hope people will eventually forget their fiasco, they’ve decided to spend donor money (meant for breast cancer research and cures) to have a firm conduct a survey — and in doing so, reignite the firestorm.
They don’t need a survey to assess the damage. They need only look at whether their donations are up or down. They need only read the news and the blogs of women across the country.
Part of the survey asks about who would make a good spokesperson for SGK. Yep, a new spokesperson. That should do it. Have the right person speak out on TV and American women will swoon and forget the whole nasty incident and donations will flow again. How tone deaf is SGK? Seven of the 20 names are current or former politicians!
It’s been said before: It takes a long time to establish a good reputation, and only one mistake to destroy it. No survey is going to show the way to a quick fix. SGK had better just accept the fact that restoring their reputation will take a very long time — if it happens at all.
For more on the survey, see the Huffington Post.
Related articles
- Susan G. Komen officials resign in protest (piedtype.com)
- Don’t ask how to apologize – Do it! The Susan G. Komen/Planned Parenthood Controversy (prdefied.wordpress.com)
- Susan G. Komen Hires Consulting Firm To Assess Damage To Reputation (zerablog.wordpress.com)
This would be an example of PR Darwinism. They will remove themselves from the fundraising pool this way.
Good. That will leave more for the organizations that don’t dabble in partisan politics.
When exposed for making a big and very unpopular mistake and a huge lapse in judgment, some people think that they can make it all go away with Spin! Spin! and even more Spin!!! Sorry Big Pink K, but I don’t think that you’re gonna spin your way out of this one…
Nope, it’s way too late to spin this one.