About William Moss
Trans-Pacific spin doctor. Head of Global Media Relations at TSMC. Occasional writer of humor and PR analysis. This is a personal blog and opinions are my own. More information at “About Imagethief“.
Also on Substack (where full posts live now), Bluesky, the usual places.
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Tag Archives: Crisis Management
We Can Character-Assassinate You for Wholesale
The long tradition of shady PR knife work in dark alleys A few years ago, I had the exquisite experience of having my emails read back to me by lawyers. There had been a snafu involving disclosure of financial information … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Crisis Management, Media, Public Relations
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Who Wants to Be On the Death Panel?
PR thoughts on the murder of an insurance man Two weeks ago, Brian Thompson, CEO of big health insurer United Healthcare, was gunned down in New York. This created an epic amount of Discourse on social media, aggravated by the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Business, Crisis Management, Media, Politics, Public Relations
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Always Check the Link!
Everything on the Internet is bad or porn until proven otherwise. Oops! CNN.com: Toy manufacturer Mattel has apologized after mistakenly printing the web address of a pornographic site on the packaging of its newly launched “Wicked” dolls. Instead of pointing readers … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Crisis Management, Media, Public Relations
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The Great Luncheon Meat Disaster of ’24
A food crisis hits me where it hurts This is one of the greatest things I have ever read in a press statement: First and foremost, our investigation has identified the root cause of the contamination as a specific production … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Crisis Management, Food, Public Relations
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Three months that changed everything: communicating COVID
I wrote an article about leading coronavirus comms for Intel during the first three months of 2020, when there was little information and lots of fear. We learned a lot of hard lessons. The introduction is below, and you can … Continue reading
I Apologize if Anyone Felt Killed
Apologies are an under-appreciated art. Most apologies crafted in the name of public relations sound intrinsically weaselly, often because the people making them are preoccupied with saving their prior reputation rather than getting past the mistake and rebuilding trust. I … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged China, Crisis Management, Public Relations, Rectified.name, Technology
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Four lessons from the Burson-Facebook fiasco
I’m ridiculously late to this, as usual, but people keep asking me about the Burson-Facebook thing because of my years at Burson, so I thought I’d post the gist of the response I’ve been giving. If you’re not familiar with … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Business, Crisis Management, Journalism, Media, Public Relations
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Apocalypse box part two: Apocalypse box
Yesterday I posted part one of Apocalypse Box, in which I wrote a bit about the communication problems surrounding the reactor disaster in Japan. I concluded with saying that just because something is unthinkable doesn’t mean it won’t happen. It … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged China, Crisis Management, Resident Alien
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Apocalypse box part one: Thinking unthinkable thoughts
Note: This is part one. Part two is here. Apropos of today’s escalation of the Fukushima reactor disaster to “7″ (Chernobyl) on the international scale, there is something about the word “radiation” that bypasses rationality and whispers right to the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Crisis Management, Public Relations, Reputation
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Could better PR have prevented Groupon’s China gaffe?
Unless you live on Pluto and you’re just in town for the temple fairs you probably know the situation with Groupon and their notorious Tibet ad. From within the China echo chamber it can be tricky to calibrate your reaction … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Business, China, Crisis Management, Public Relations, Technology
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