Devoted to branding and building and protecting brands

Jeeze, what’s the prez of Prestige U. to do when his brand’s being bashed harder than the Bush White House in San Francisco ?  Maybe just take PR counsel from Harry Truman.  More on that in moment.  First, the news:

Last week, some of you PR folk may recall, Duke’s William Brodhead took heat described in A whole new definition of "Blue Devils"  from PR uber-consultant Rich (hope he lets me call him Rich) Edelman.  Brodhead, in Edelman's considered view, violated a cardinal rule of crisis-PR management. This is the one that cites the need for speed when it comes to public response from the highest level.  OK, so the Duke of Duke finally comes out and all but trashes the allegedly-criminally, lewd-and-lascivious but still-innocent-until-proven-guilty lacrosse dudes who allegedly raped a stripper, before and/or during and/or after she “danced” in their house.  Stay with me here.  It now seems Brodhead’s delay in public utterance may have been hasty after all.  The D.A. in Durham , still pursuing case, finds no DNA as supporting evidence for the allegations.  Doesn’t mean a crime wasn’t done.  Just means there’s no incriminating DNA at the moment.  First, some disclosure: Just as Edelman voiced indignance about this ugly episode, citing the fact that he was the father of daughters, allow me to voice indignance of my own as the father of a recent college-grad son who resided at a raucous – but to my knowledge healthily functional – frat house. The idea of my young man being wrongfully and very publicly accused of rape is every bit as painful to me as the prospect of a violated daughter.  Back to President Brodhead and the brand implications for Duke University : sometimes, you just gotta remember the words of President Truman, one of my heroes, who said something to the effect that he occasionally felt like a jackass in a rainstorm, just having to stand out there and take it, PR niceties or no.  He actually didn’t include that last phrase, but you get my gist. In the instance of a university president, perhaps this statement Truman made in a letter to his sister is more on point:  “All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”  And now you see why large institutions are so wary of public statements, and employ so many lawyers to do what used to be known as simple PR.  Nothing is simple, except any minds at University of North Carolina who might be enjoying some schadenfreude at the plight of their nemesis, the Dukies. Ask not for whom the campus bell tolls.  In branding terms, when Ford issues a recall doesToyota celebrate?