Raleigh NC| State Official Resigns Over Racist E-mail Flap

Why The Best Defense Is A Good Offense, And Why The Best Crisis PR Plan Is Common Sense

Doug Fox, the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Commission chairman, resigned today after The News and Observer presented Gov. Bev Perdue with an e-mail Fox, also a Wilmington attorney, sent in November after President Barack Obama’s election, which featured a doctored image of the White House’s South Lawn depicted as a watermelon patch.

File that as Exhibit ‘A’ under political follies of Darwinian proportion. Really, what were you thinking?

We’ll spare the lesson in reactive crisis PR for this post. Instead, meet crisis PR’s Agent Zero: keeping one’s nose clean. The best crisis plan is a proactive one that prepares someone ahead of time for possible crises and sets mechanisms in place to avoid PR blunders. (Granted, you can’t predict the future, but the Boy Scouts’ mantra — “be prepared” — rings true here.) Equipping your employees with a plan of action for certain circumstances is a must in todays 24/7 news cycle.

In Fox’s case, while impeding opinions like the one he implicitly shared by forwarding the offensive e-mail might prove difficult, any PR team worth its salt would refer again and again to talking point number one: Act like a public official should. Even ABC Commission chairmen are representatives of the people.

The relationship between PR team and client can be a two-way street; the clients who see the most success (or avoid foolish decisions that can stain a brand) are the ones who recognize the value of proactive measures to prepare for the worst.

Photo via thirdrail