Former President Donald Trump has been using an old PR strategy in his bid for reelection. His tactics are to blame Kamala Harris and anyone else except himself for every problem in our country.
Blaming someone else is a tactic that some entities in crisis situations have used for years—declaring that the situation they are in was caused by the malpractice of others. Lesson to be remembered: It never works.
It’s what I call the “Don’t blame me, it’s not my fault” strategy that was used by corporations in some of the most noteworthy crisis situations during our lifetime.
Below are three examples:
- BP: On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations. Eleven rig workers were killed in the explosion. The chief executive of BP did what Donald Trump is currently doing, blaming someone else. “The responsibility for safety on the drilling rig is Transocean. It is their rig, their equipment, their people, their systems, their safety processes,” said BP’s CEO. But federal investigators said in a report that BP took too many shortcuts because it was weeks behind its schedule and millions of dollars over budget, which led to the explosion.
- Wells Fargo: After it became public in 2016 that the bank was creating fake accounts and other scams, it received on-going negative media coverage. An executive of the bank did what Donald Trump is now doing, blaming someone else. He said many of the bank’s problems were the result of newspapers reporting on the situation in order to increase circulation and that the problems at the bank were greatly exaggerated. Bank regulators did not agree, and the president of Wells Fargo was banned from banking for the rest of his life; another official received jail time.
- Boeing: Boeing’s CEO’s attempted to shift the blame for the two crashes of its 737 Max’s, one in 2018, the other in 2019, by pointing fingers at the pilots of the two planes. I paraphrase, “It’s not our fault. The crashes were due to pilot error,” he said. Again government officials disagreed. A U.S. House investigative report criticized Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration for “repeated and serious failure.”
Perhaps Donald Trump got the idea for his “Don’t blame me, it’s not my fault” strategy because the BP, Wells Fargo and Boeing corporations received millions of dollars worth of free publicity when their crises were covered by the media. And if there is one thing Mr. Trump loves, it’s publicity. If so, he must be envious of Boeing, because hardly a day goes by when the company’s problems still generate major news coverage.
Mr. Trump’s “Don’t blame me, it’s not my fault” strategy has provided several important PR lessons that apply to non-political situations:
- In our business, it’s common for supervisors to blame their subordinates when things go sour. Keeping a daily rerecord of what you do and conversations with your supervisor is one way to protect yourself if that happens to you. In the event that it does, prepare a detailed report that explains why you’re being unfairly blamed for problems on the account. The report should include how you helped the account. Do not go to Human Resources, send it directly to the manager of your office, and the president and CEO of the agency and request an in-person meeting to discuss the situation.
- When speaking with the media never make statements, like Mr. Trump does, that have no basis in fact. Just as Trump’s are proven to be false, so can yours.
- Mr. Trump’s plan of attacking the Harris-Walz ticket continues, even though it has been getting negative daily media coverage, and many GOP strategists have said he should consider a new strategy. Don’t act like Mr. Trump. If an account you’re supervising is not working out, immediately tell the client and say that you’d like to make mid-course corrections. Clients will appreciate that.
A major mistake that I’ve witnessed many times relates to the last bullet. Accounts executives are afraid to tell a client that the approved plan is not working and continue to ride that dead horse until the budget is used up.
That’s a major mistake, in my opinion. Just as you have to report to supervisors, the client has to report to his management and explain why a plan that the client approved was a failure. When that happens you have an unhappy client. It’s better to let the client know that a change of plans is needed as soon as you know that the plan is failing. I’ve known cases when the client would go directly to the CEO of the agency and demand an account change, at best, or say that the account would be put up for review, at worst.