OK, anyone see yesterday’s Washington Post outlining the unbelievably high executive pay at Reston, VA-based Sprint? Is it any wonder that America has zero trust that big business will do the right thing?
Look at these numbers: “Sprint Nextel reported yesterday that chief executive Gary D. Forsee’s 2006 compensation totaled $21.3 million while former chairman Timothy M. Donahue’s totaled $36.2 million.” These guys have run Sprint into the ground and they’re making this kind of cash? Hmmm.
PR teams have issues to face in the coming years addressing situations like these. Until big business gets more accountable for its behavior, negative hubris will continue to disseminate into the general media and throughout the blogosphere. Outrageous executive pay, shameless profiteering and unfriendly environmental policies hurt brands, and overall hurts trust in corporations. Credibility becomes harder to generate, and rightly so.
This is the great challenge for PR over the next ten years… And the facts may simply be aligned against us. The truth weighs hard in the scales of perception. Companies must become better citizens if we are to be successful.
Bad Branding II
Anyone see Bacon’s announcement to become Cision? What is cision, a slang version of decision? Why is this better than the venerable brand Bacon’s? I’m sorry, but this one seems like a fruitless expenditure and one that will cause confusion with Bacon’s customer base (guys like me!). Thanks to Mr. T in DC for pointing this one out.
[...] Still, being the skeptic I am, part of me wonders if this is authentic. Could this be in response to the Washington Post article Geoff commented on last month? [...]