Branding Politix, Messaging, Speeches, public relations • May 1st, 2008

Mission accomplished?

by Chris Lato

I bring this up not to argue about Iraq – plenty of bloggers across the political spectrum do that daily.

This is a question of communications, public relations, and event management – an example of a colossal misfire that really could have been avoided had cooler heads prevailed.

I’m talking about one of the less illustrious anniversaries for the Bush administration. Remember the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner flown five years ago today on the USS Abraham Lincoln? President Bush made his dramatic entrance on the aircraft carrier and declared that “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.”

Oops.

Again, I’m not arguing Iraq here. But let’s break down the communications missteps.

#1 - That damn banner. The administration’s opponents have embraced it as a sign of arrogance and hubris, and rammed it down their collective throat for five years now. It’s hard to argue the point. It was an overreaching PR blunder on an occasion that called for restraint.

Was it a bad decision? You betcha. An administration that generally understands and adheres to message discipline really stepped in it, with the perception being that the war was over way, WAY before it really was. It was politically tone-deaf.

#2-The post-banner mangling. The White House offered a string of reasons for the banner, none of which rang true. The more excuses and contradictory reasons you offer, well, the less truthful and forthcoming you appear - especially if you can’t offer a definitive response ASAP and be done with it.

That won’t stop your enemies from frothing at the mouth, but at least you have put your response out there, quickly and on the record, and can point to that every time the issue comes up again. You have the force and clarity of your argument on your side.

#3-The speech. What can I say? I’m sure President Bush didn’t write it, but clearly his staff was all charged up over what they saw as a big victory and overreached wildly.

Again, considering the setting and what should have been a fairly solemn occasion, it was treated as a rah-rah moment that, to this day, we’re still talking about in a less-than-favorable light.

One poorly conceived press event that resonates for years. You could make the argument that no one could have predicted where things would be five years later, but good PR consultation offers a sense of where things may go, the positives and negatives behind what you do to engage the press. For whatever reason, that apparently didn’t happen here, but the price for that shortsightedness is still being paid.

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