When then-president George H.W. Bush blurted out "Message: I care" during the 1992 presidential primary campaign, and when BP board chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg earnestly announced outside the White House in June that "we care about the small people," anyone who has ever practiced crisis communications knew exactly how those two unfortunate phrases entered the brain and then moved to the lip.
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The gulf oil spill has lots of people talking once again about "getting off oil." It is well known, however, that even a clearly articulated energy policy (which our nation lacks) that focuses on replacing fossil fuels with renewables is decades away due to a number of challenges ranging from capital requirements to politics to scale.
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Beckerman, one of the largest independent public relations firms in the industry, today announced the acquisition of Antenna Group Inc., a nationally recognized, full-service, strategic communications firm specializing in serving clean technology companies and corporations concerned about sustainability. The acquisition creates the largest clean technology specialty public relations practice in the nation.
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One of the biggest mistakes companies make when it comes to crisis communications is failing to distinguish between catastrophe - natural or manmade - and crisis. Speaking realistically, your company and your CEO are far more likely to be held hostage by government regulators than by a band of terrorists; far more likely to be assaulted by plaintiff lawyers than by members of a Colombian drug cartel; and far more likely to be struck by a whistleblower wielding damaging internal emails than by a tsunami.
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In February, Beckerman announced the opening of its Washington, D.C., office led by newly appointed senior vice president for crisis, litigation and legal services Naomi Decter, who brings to the position more than 15 years of experience in corporate crisis and litigation communications, public affairs and media.
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