Just Avoid Holding It That Way

This week, we have a bold statement by a CEO from two years ago maybe biting said CEO in the ass this week, and a rare misstep by an iconic company that still benefited them, because, well, Apple.

Loser: David Zaslav/Warner Bros Discovery, for being hoisted on his own petard by the NBA. Zaslav and WBD have stepped in it several times in recent months -- killing "Batgirl" for a tax writeoff; everyone crapping on the Max branding; putting pressure on GQ to kill a negative story about Zaslav; and him getting booed at his own alma mater, among other indignities. It's been a streak of rake-steps for the beleaguered executive and his company. This week, it got worse. The NBA is in the midst of negotiations for its next TV contracts, to begin in 2025. WBD owns TNT, which has been the spiritual home of basketball for decades, led by the iconic "Inside The NBA" show. This week, stories began to leak that Disney (ESPN/ABC) would likely keep its contract; Amazon would get a piece to add to its live sports portfolio; and Comcast/NBC was the more likely winner of the third and last piece of the pie, leaving TNT out of the running. Many of these leaks cited Zaslav at an RBC investor conference in 2022, saying "...we don't have to have the NBA." The confidence at the time now looks like hubris, and has led to TNT showing shots of Zaslav sitting court side at playoff games, right next to his favorite Goldman Sachs banker. If he can somehow win a share of the rights, my guess in NBA commissioner Adam Silver will ensure Zaslav pays through the nose for a smaller package of games.

Learning: Sometimes it's useful to set the narrative or project strength through CEO commentary that is bold and even a bit outlandish. Done right, you know it will get picked up everywhere, like it did for WBD in 2022. Other times, it sets a bar that's impossible to get over or walk back, like it did for WBD this week. Be very clear about the downsides of employing this tactic.

Winner: Apple, for it's almost-certainly unintentional success at creating a big newscycle for the new iPads. A couple of days ago, Apple released a new iPad ad. It did not go well. Almost immediately, social media lit up, slagging the company for literally crushing physical objects of joy in favor of yet another screen. David Teicher wrote a thoughtful summary on LinkedIn about the blowback. Before you knew it, it had jumped from social to traditional media, with The Atlantic giving the controversy the Important Issue bona fides. The WSJ took a shot as well. Yesterday, Apple did something it almost never does -- it apologized and pulled the ad. So why is this in the Winner category? Doesn't it feel like a classic example of a company being so myopic that it had no one internally who could see what was obvious to everyone else? That happens with astounding regularity. Reputation takes a hit and then eventually bounces back. Well, I don't know about you, but I had no idea that Apple had released new iPads, apparently very recently. But now I do. And I'm thinking about upgrading.

Learning: Look, I'm not sure anything that Apple does or doesn't do can be applied to other companies. The reality distortion field is weaker than it was 10 years ago, but it's still there. And at one point, they famously flaunted that they knew consumers better then the consumers themselves did. Remember "Just avoid holding it that way"? But times are different, and by acting quickly and apologizing and making a show of pulling the ad, they were able to create another newscycle that talked about their new iPad.

I'm Hani Durzy, president and founder of Red Dog Strategies, a senior level communications consultancy. We fulfill fractional and interim comms lead needs; handle distinct and specific projects around crisis comms, corporate narrative development, M&A/financial communications, change management, and building editorial content capabilities to augment storytelling; and execute "wellness check" assessments of existing comms programs to unlock the power of the function. If you want to talk, please reach out at [email protected].