Streisand effect

Don't point at something you don't want people to see.

This is an extract from last week's IMTW.

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Issue № 113 | London, Sunday 27 October 2024

Read on to learn why:

① Very few interview topics are damaging enough to even try to suppress.

② We want to look at things we’re told not to look at.

③ Private credit has become the driving force in the private investment world.

④ Stablecoins might become the dominant settlement and payment instrument.

⑤ When well targeted, sports sponsorship is effective but emotive.

⑥ Companies need mechanisms to consider ethical dilemmas as they arise.

⑦ Good marketers put their customers first.

What's new

The Verge interviewed Intuit’s CEO, Sasan Goodarzi, for its podcast this week but, before the episode aired, Intuit’s chief communications officer threatened the publication in an effort to suppress a portion of the recording. In a development that will come as a surprise to absolutely no one who reads IMTW regularly, things didn’t pan out so well for Intuit.

Nilay Patel, editor-in-cheif of The Verge, writes:

• “I couldn’t have the CEO of Intuit on without asking about tax reform in the United States. Individual income taxes are more complicated in the US than in almost any other developed economy, and Intuit has been lobbying hard since the late 1990s to keep it that way to protect TurboTax, spending nearly $3.8 million in lobbying in 2023 alone. […] I asked about that, and Sasan disagreed with me, and we went back and forth for a few minutes on it.”
• “Then I got a note from Rick Heineman, the chief communications officer at Intuit, who called the line of questioning and my tone ‘inappropriate,’ ‘egregious,’ and ‘disappointing’ and demanded that we delete that entire section of the recording. I mean, literally — he wrote a long email that ended with ‘at the very least the end portion of your interview should be deleted’. We don’t do that here at The Verge. As many of our listeners and readers know, we have a very explicit and very strict ethics policy.”
• “I have to be honest with you — that’s one of the weirdest requests I’ve ever gotten. So here’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to run that whole part of the interview first, unedited, so you can tell me. It’s about five minutes long, and you can decide for yourself. Then we’ll come out of it, and we’ll run the rest of the interview, which, like I said, is an otherwise fascinating episode of Decoder.”

Why it matters

This story is a textbook example of how not to do PR. As if the Verge’s resulting coverage wasn’t bad enough (it was the number one story on the site all week), other outlets soon picked up the story too. If you’re in any doubt that this was the wrong tactic, one that was doomed to produce the exact opposite outcome it was aiming for, look no further than Gizmodo, The Verge’s competitor. They titled their coverage of the incident Here’s What TurboTax’s Boss Doesn’t Want You to Hear. Far from hushed, the story was amplified.

① One wonders whether Heineman came under pressure from Goodarzi who is perhaps overly sensitive about this topic. That’s the only explanation that occurs to me for why an experienced communications executive would kick an own goal like this. There are two glaring mistakes here. The first is a complete lack of judgement about what is damaging enough to even try to suppress. The reality is that the segment of the interview in question wasn’t contentious. Intuit may not have its lobbying against the IRS at the top of the list of topics it likes talking about but it had to expect a decent journalist to ask, and Goodarzi acquitted himself as well as can be expected when Patel did. Had Heineman not tried to have the segment cut, any reasonable person would have listened to the interview and thought nothing of it.

② The second is that coming down hard on a journalist, criticising their integrity and skill while trying to have them edit their work never produces the result you want. The only thing you’ll achieve is the Streisand effect. It’s obvious human nature: we want to look at and listen to things we’re told not to look at or listen to.

What to do about it

Take action

Over the years, I’ve offered you all the advice you need to handle these sorts of PR situations. When faced with a difficult topic:

1. Train and rehearse: Media interviews is a skill that can be taught. Be prepared.
2. Be empathetic: The best interviews are candid, informed, and interesting.
3. Tell the truth: It’s tempting to obfuscate or bend the facts to your narrative. Don’t. Tackle the question honestly.
4. Remain focused: Your PR efforts should be objective-driven and free of vanity.
5. Appear calm and confident: How you look is as important as what you say.

Get help

IMTW is brought to you by InMarketing, a strategic advisory service for senior leadership teams in B2B finance and technology. How it can help you:

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To learn why:

③ Private credit has become the driving force in the private investment world.

④ Stablecoins might become the dominant settlement and payment instrument.

⑤ When well targeted, sports sponsorship is effective but emotive.

⑥ Companies need mechanisms to consider ethical dilemmas as they arise.

⑦ Good marketers put their customers first.

Visit InMarketing This Week for the rest of this issue >

About

Written for senior leadership teams in B2B finance and technology, InMarketing This Week is a showcase for news likely to impact you - delivered with insight on why it matters and ideas on what to do about it. It’s published every Sunday at six to give you a head start on the week. Read extracts?here, or subscribe to?have each full issue delivered straight to your inbox, before it's available anywhere else.