Lori Loughlin Does Not Have a PR Problem

Every few months, usually due to a celebrity or politician's indiscretion, the words "PR Problem" get thrown around. Most recently Lori Loughlin and the college admissions scandal has been the cause of this.

While Loughlin has a legal problem, an ethics problem, and a family problem, she DOES NOT have a public relations problem.

A PR problem is when I have a client press release scheduled to go over the wire at 9am and at 8:45 that morning I get a text that a quote needs to be changed. This was directly caused by and impacts the process of strategic communications and PR, hence it being a related problem.

As an industry we have a major issue with an unclear understanding of what we do, especially among clients. This impacts the effectiveness of a campaign and the focus and allocation of resources for a the client. Much of the time of the PR and media relations professional is spent on educating on strategic tools rather than their implementation. The use of the term "PR Problem" expounds on this issue and extends it into false expectations of what success of a campaign looks like.

With the case of Loughlin, and all similar big news scandals, some PR professionals make things even worse by assuming the role of PR pundit and making their own TV  and print publication rounds where they discuss how so and so's PR firm or rep is handling the "PR problem" du jour, the wrong way. This is industry self toxicity at its worst.

I have worked many clients during crises moments, ranging from small scale product issue to international debacle, but would never go out and critique the approach of another pro, while any crisis is happening. I wouldn’t do this for one very important reason, I know better.

The people who go public with their expert opinions know better too, but they'd rather shoot themselves, and the industry in the foot down the line, in exchange for limited short term profiteering.

We all know better because as experienced professionals we know that clients always hold back details. We know that clients, especially in moments of crises and stress don't always listen to our counsel. We know that, just like with our own campaigns, what goes into effect is very often  does not match the perfect world ideal plan originally proposed. There are too many variables at play for an outside voice, no matter how experienced they are, to really have any weight of opinion on what they see or infer is happening with a campaign they are not part of.

When making any PR campaign, be it crisis or otherwise, the key component to that plan being a success is having as much information on the situation as possible. No one would ever go forward with an entire campaign based in the copy of a product description alone. We would do the due diligence of talking to marketing, sales, and product development teams to get deeper context of market need of that product and its expected impacts. We would do competitor audits to see how it compares to the industry landscape. Then, after we have as much information as possible we make intelligent, fact based strategic plans.

For PR pros who publicly go and call crisis issues “PR problems” and critique actions on the spot, they do so willingly ignoring the essence of what it takes to make any sort of intelligent analysis. Instead, their approach is to take the headline of the crisis, apply their own experiences as to what they might do based on skin deep understanding, and then make sweeping generalizations as to the differences in what they are seeing and what they ideally would be suggesting. While certainly an entertaining perspective on the days news, because of the underlying issue of lack of business understanding of public relations, this behavior hurts us all.

Why is the use of the term "PR problem" so dangerous to the industry? The moment you say PR Problem you imply there is a PR solution. When you have PR pros going out on camera and critiquing strategies in real-time, and calling it a "PR problem" it legitimizes a false concept and continues to set unrealistic expectations for all clients to come, from product launch to crisis communications.

Going back to Loughlin and the college admissions scandal, PR can not fix that. There is no magic press release or interview strategy that will make legal problems go away, or fix her family life, or even give her a new ethical perspective on life. You can't fix a non PR based issue with PR. That's why there are lawyers, therapists, and clergy members.

PR is designed to either build or maintain an understanding of product, service, or perspective within a target demographic. This doesn't change in times of crisis. Crisis often causes a shift or reset of audience understanding and/or acceptance. This change is a PR problem, but it heavily relies on the event which caused the shift. In times of crisis, PR can work to help minimize the degree of the shift or set the groundwork for the rebuilding phase after the crisis event passes. This is a important distinction from using PR as a means to fix the crisis itself.

Is Loughlin's current representation employing the best plan for this? I have no idea because I'm not privy to realities of the client. The greatest PR minds in the world can't make her legal issues go away, what it can do is build the foundation to the long road she faces in rebuilding her brand. This is not something that will  be mended instantly with a press release or heartfelt quote. It will take a long term strategy based on the outcome of her legal issues before she or any PR pundit will start to see what the impact of her current crisis team’s approach is. It is at that time that we can maybe start to have have a discussion on how this is a case study for future crisis. What I do know without hesitation is that Lori Loughlin does not a PR problem, we as an industry do.