If you’re going to burn, at least burn for doing the right thing.
At heart, PR is a simple trade. Figure out interesting stories and tell them. Build trust with reporters and others in positions of influence. Try to not screw up egregiously. There is craft and skill implied in those three points, but that’s the gist of it.
Nevertheless, people continue to find ways to screw up egregiously. If your PR strategy ends with you and your former employer paying $57 million dollars in legal settlements, you have screwed up.
A couple of weeks ago, e-commerce site Ebay settled a lawsuit with David and Ina Steiner, editors of EcommerceBytes, a trade news website, concluding a case that dates back to 2019. In 2020 the New York Times published a long a deeply reported piece on the scandal, and it’s worth a read if you want all the grisly details. If you don’t have that kind of time, a July 28th Times story on the settlement has a summary:
In the spring of 2019, eBay was under pressure from an activist hedge fund. A handful of Ms. Steiner’s articles, including one about a bar [then Ebay CEO Devin Wenig] had built on eBay’s campus, infuriated company executives, according to texts revealed by prosecutors. Further details of the stalking operation were later revealed by journalists and the Steiners’ own lawsuit, which was filed in 2021.
“Take her down,” Mr. Wenig told his communications chief, who in turn told the security team leader to do “whatever it takes.”
The Steiners were bombarded with anonymous material including deliveries of live cockroaches and a bloody pig mask. They were threatened online. Much of the material they were sent, including a funeral wreath and a book on surviving the loss of a spouse, suggested imminent death. The security team was on the verge of breaking into the Steiners’ garage to put a tracker on their car when the plot was derailed.
No! Wrong! Bad! If you are a communications chief and you get a request like this, you have two options:
- Counsel your executive on why this is a bad idea and offer alternatives.
- Resign on principle.
You may have to do both of these things, in this order!
Imagethief 