A Spin-Doctor Like No Other: Crisis Management @ B-M

“Crisis” by its own definition brings up the emotion of fear to the public. Crisis over an earthquake (Haiti), a hurricane (Katrina) and the list goes on and on. Crisis Management is the way a corporation, institution or person is able to spin bad news into good news and usually that falls into the hands of educated PR agencies like B-M. But what happens when the “crisis” happens to the agency itself? How are they able to change their image to capture the positive side of a possibly negative situation that can affect how their clients see them?

Throughout the history of B-M, the agency has been employed by numerous clients some of them quite controversial companies and national regimes. Like any other PR agency, the clients seek PR agencies to help them in creating a positive image. The controversial groups definitely need more help. Any other agency in its place would have surrendered itself already to the pressure given off by groups and or advocacy groups that are against those same clients B-M represents.

But not B-M.

Take for example the following video (http://vodpod.com/watch/1412630-rachel-maddow-show-mark-penns-burson-marsteller-the-p-r-firm-from-hell) of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and how she attacked BM for its choice of clients. Maddow, very funny I must say, references one after the other what seems as a list of horrendous clients that B-M has helped with their image: AIG, Blackwater, 3-Mile Island, Saudi Arabia (after 9/11), the Military Junta in Argentina (1976), Phillip Morris, on and on she specified at least 12 clients followed by the disaster they had either caused or were accused of causing. She actually said: ‘When Evil needs public relations, Evil has Burson-Masteller in speed dial” and finished the segment calling B-M “the PR from Hell.”

How can an agency survive this kind of barrage? Spin, spin, spin and proving that they are the best at what they do. BM’s high echelon of executives is always in a public or educational conference and in the news bringing their savvy knowledge to the public. The extended media coverage their presentations acquire is an example of how respected they are by the media.

To give you an example of how well B-M can handle "crisis", the same year of the Maddow show (2009), the agency earned thirteen prestigious awards in Public Relations.