He got it right. The content, the contrition, the kudos to his missus and, most importantly, the tone were all pretty much bang-on. There were two big danger zones for Tiger Woods in his statement to the world this morning which could have made the exercise into a giant Fumble. The first was any hint of weasel-factor with respect to his apology. Had he seemed to be trying to make excuses or deflect the blame in any way, it would have been disasterous. So Woods was smart to repeatedly point to "my behaviour" and acknowledge that he was solely responsible for the mess in which he has found himself. And the second was his overall tone. Sure, this statement was crafted with help from some of the best in the business, but when it came to the delivery, that was all up to Tiger. Come off as too slick, and it won't wash - but Woods put it straight in the cup when he said "I am SO sorry ..." The only place I thought he ended up in the rough was the angry lecturing to the media to leave his wife and kids alone. An eminently fair demand, but you can't get all huffy if, as a public figure, you have remained so deep in hiding that you essentially leave them no choice but to try and get to those close to you instead. He was, however, wise to sing the praises of his long-suffering wife, and to specifically refute allegations that she had attacked him or that there had ever been an incident of domestic violence in their history - questions many were asking, including the police. So on balance, I think it was mission accomplished for Tiger today. He said his piece in a fully controlled environment with the whole world watching, and served clear notice that from this point forward he considers it a personal, private matter between himself and his family. And, having done so, he can now rebuff the first reporter's question about any of this stuff by noting that he has already said all he cares to say.

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I feel for John Furlong and the rest of the officials with the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee (VANOC), I really do. Logistical headaches are inevitable at any event on this scale; throw in the warmest weather in ages, and you’ve got a communications nightmare. For his part, CEO Furlong has gamely followed good crisis (and we use the term loosely in this case) communications fundamentals by being available to reporters regularly and frequently. He has also answered the key questions as to what happened and what is being done to correct the various problems, i.e. course conditions, lineups, transportation, etc. But for me, what tips this call to a Turnover – I think VANOC’s defence has been too strong to call it a Fumble – is the fracas around the massive Olympic cauldron. The public had been kept far, far away from the iconic structure, with an ugly chain-link security fence blocking all camera angles. VANOC did the right thing by moving the fence line such that people can now get much closer, and facilitating photos with an eye-level cut in the fence and access to an adjacent rooftop vantage point offering a clean shot. The big communications problems here have been two-fold: first, although they moved the fence, VANOC never once admitted it was a bad idea to have it where it was in the first place. A suitable acceptance of responsibility – and, in this case, an overt apology would have been in order – is essential in crisis communications response. And, more than that, the best solution to a potential PR disaster is to not have one in the first place. Unlike most (if not all) of the other problems giving VANOC bad press, somebody should have seen this one coming and fixed it at the outset.

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Last week Veritas hosted an information session for CPRS student members. We invited each of the students to submit a feature piece for this week's Touchdowns and Fumbles. The chosen entry was written by Humber College student Cara Eng. Thank you to all students who provided submissions

“Too Fat To Fly” rap turns Kevin Smith into not-so-silent Bob

From terminal to Twitter, film director Kevin Smith takes on Southwest Airlines. Smith is accusing Southwest for unfairly ejecting him from his seat, saying the airline deemed him “too fat to fly.” Smith was removed from his flight, despite being buckled into his seatbelt and fitting between the seat handles. Although apologies have been given, Smith is demanding that Southwest make clear that their “Customer of Size” policy does not pertain to him. Sharing the story with his nearly 1.7-million Twitter followers, his audio “SMODcast” listeners and a barrage of YouTube videos, Smith claims to want nothing more than decency and an accurate apology. Southwest continues to stand by its “Customer of Size” policy despite the obvious discrepancies in criteria/enforcement, and did go so far as to phone Smith personally and to post a blog item about the whole incident. But at the end of the day, whether online or off, the lesson is simple: inconsistency brings any company – especially one in the customers ervice business – nothing but bad news.

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Something has clearly happened to Jim Flaherty, the tough and once-unlovable federal finance minister who shocked the financial services industry and millions of pensioners three years ago when he announced surprise changes to the tax rules on income trusts —on Halloween, no less. That nightmare is long past. Lately, Flaherty seems to have been replaced with a kinder, gentler avatar — who has a far superior sense of timing big announcements. Consider Flaherty’s Feb. 16 unveiling of new mortgage rules: James Cameron could not have more successfully staged the rollout. These rules had been anticipated for a while now, of course, as speculation among the economic cognoscenti about a housing bubble in Canada mounted, along with the expectation that Flaherty would have to do something about it. The bare fact, on the other hand, is that nobody knows if it’s a bubble or not, and Canada’s robust housing market is one of the bragging points for this government on the international stage (along, of course, with the Best Banking System in the World™). So Flaherty had two messages: Don’t panic, and we’re doing something serious about this thing you shouldn’t be panicking about. He pulled it off. One way was in the actual changes to the mortgage rules (making some mortgages harder to get, basically), which for the vast majority of homebuyers will be meaningless, but might take some of the air out of any bubble — if one exists, and Flaherty wasn’t saying that it did. In fact, in his news conference the minister emphasized repeatedly that there are no sure signs of a housing bubble, but that the government was changing the rules in order to be “prudent and proactive” (the two P’s of Finance-speak) to make sure homeowners don’t get walloped when higher interest rates arrive. After a rather brief address, he left the answering of detailed questions to his staff — ensuring that the announcement would be off the morning TV news cycle after about five minutes. Overall message: “Nothing to worry about (probably), but we’re on it anyway.” Unsurprisingly, news media picked up on the two P’s, and didn’t question much whether a) these moves were sufficient or b) these moves were overkill—which seems to be just what the minister wanted. It didn’t hurt that Flaherty’s announcement came on the same morning that the Vanier Institute for the Family released its much-covered annual report on Canadian household finances, which included lots of scary stats about rising debt levels, increasingly frequent missed mortgage payments and credit-card balance nightmares—all of which helped to buttress the minister’s call for prudent, proactive moves. That was either superb timing or unbelievably lucky timing. Either way, it wasn’t the nightmare it could have been.

What’s your call?

Of course it’s too early to tell whether Steve O’Brien can save the Toronto Transit Commission from itself. The 44-year-old hotelier, who runs Toronto’s One King West condo-hotel, was this week named as the head of the TTC’s customer service advisory panel. And what a job that will be. Plagued by complaints of shoddy service, subway breakdowns and photos of sleeping TTC employees that have become an online phenomenon (just Google “TTC” and “sleeping”), the “Better Way” was looking like the “Battered Way” even before the sex scandal that kyboshed TTC commissioner Adam Giambrone’s mayoral ambitions. So who in his right mind would want to be in charge of turning around its reputation? Apparently a guy with a knack for public speaking, a solid track record in an important service industry, and a decent sense of humour. In accepting the appointment, O’Brien acknowledged that he was taking on one of the toughest jobs in the city (for no pay) and that he was “excited, flattered—crazy.” The only knock against O’Brien seems to be that he lives in the bedroom community of Milton and takes the GO train to work—a criticism expressed in no uncertain terms by Bob Kinnear, head of the Amalgamated Transit Union local that represents TTC workers. “I’m floored,” Kinnear was quoted as saying by NOW magazine. “The traveling public quite frankly deserves better.” Indeed they do. But who’s to say O’Brien isn’t the man to deliver? Bob Kinnear? When the sleeping-attendant photos went viral, Kinnear issued a now-infamous statement blaming TTC customers for not waking the snoozer up. Now, it might well be that the customer is NOT always right, but blaming him or her for your own screw-ups is not a great PR strategy. Nor is being seen to be insensitive to what appear to be honest efforts to improve public attitudes towards your workplace and your union members. In the NOW piece, Kinnear mocked O’Brien’s lack of transit experience. “I’d like to ask him the last time one of his clerks was punched in the face,” he said. Transit riders might be wondering something else—like the last time O’Brien caught one of his clerks asleep on the job, and what he did about it. I doubt he blamed his customers. Fumble, Bob Kinnear.

What’s your call?

Jor Chidley served as the editor of Canadian Business Magazine for over nine years. He is now the senior vice-president of corporate and public affairs at Veritas.

Let us put the rumors to rest. Gordon Lightfoot has not died, despite what you may have read on Twitter or the media. Although Lightfoot joked about an increase in airplay resulting from the rumour, this situation is a reminder of the importance of vetting sources in a real-time world. Several Canwest media outlets posted news of Gordon Lightfoot’s “death,” going so far as to suggest it had been confirmed by fellow singer Ronnie Hawkins. The story was published broadly, appearing online in the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen and the Calgary Herald amongst others. Canwest isn’t alone in this kind of gaffe. In the day leading up to the launch of Apple’s iPad, the Wall Street Journal and others fell for a prank by long time tech insider and angel funder, Jason Calcanis, publishing false details and specs about the yet to be released product that Jason had revealed through his Twitter profile. Not so long ago, I read on Twitter that Natalie Portman had died, having fallen off a cliff during work on set. So the Lightfoot resurrection is just the latest in a string of social media-fuelled rumours which have crossed over into mainstream media outlets more concerned with being first than being right. A cautionary tale for all in both new and traditional media – it’s a different world, folks.

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Sean McDonaldSean McDonald is an expert in social media marketing. He is an Account Manager in Veritas’s social media division com.motion.