PR Professionals: Messes Swept Up On Demand
Professional communicators – those who deal with the media on a daily basis – have a thankless job. Their clients step in doo-doo and expect the PR people to make it all smell of roses by the time it appears in print. The trouble is, the clients have no clue how the media operates.
One client of mine always insisted on sending lengthy news releases to the local newspapers, much more than we could reasonably expect would ever be printed. My solution was to have him approve a three-page release, then I would send the paper a much shorter version, just the essential stuff in three or four paragraphs. When the item finally appeared in print, his reaction was always the same: “Well they chopped the hell out of our release, but at least they got all the important stuff.” Gee … I wonder why!
The Amtrak media relations people, however, have much bigger problems.
On one hand, they have their marketing department promoting a photography contest, asking people to enter Amtrak-related photos for the competition. (Official contest rules stipulated that photographers had to stay away from any area not open to the general public.)
On the other hand, they have the Amtrak police accosting a guy in New York’s Pennsylvania Station a few days ago after seeing him photograph a departing Amtrak train. This guy, Duane Kerzic, a 50-year-old Navy vet, was going to enter the photography contest and, yes, he was standing on the station platform at the time.
Was that a problem? Evidently, because the cops searched his camera bag and, finding nothing, demanded that he delete all photographs from the camera. When Kerzic indignantly refused, the cops handcuffed him and tossed him into a cell for a couple of hours. They finally let him go with a citation for trespassing. Trespassing? On a station platform?
Kersic says he’ll sue, and a number of individuals and organizations are taking up the cause.
Hey, no problem. Just pass the whole mess along to Amtrak’s PR people. They’ll know how to deal with it.
Finally, let me say that Kerzic is a very talented photographer. You can go here to see some of the shots he took just before he was busted.
