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PRPrinciplesEthicsCaseStudies.pdf

Public Relations Management 1

Worldwide PR Inc. •Worldwide PR Inc. (WPI) is a global PR agency specializing in the retail supply chain.

•You have been working there for about a year and have been given the assignment of pitching and placing a by-lined article for one of the agency’s major clients—a regional chain of upscale super markets.

•You succeed in landing an opportunity to place the article in SuperMarket News, a leading trade publication.

•Working with the client’s assistant and the media, you develop a great article and it runs in the next edition. In reality, you wrote the entire piece and the client only superficially perused it before release.

•Unfortunately, the article contains an egregious error and a major competitor calls the publication to point it out. The client is embarrassed, angry and is forced to publicly apologize and set the record straight.

•Your boss offers to fire you. The editor asks you who really wrote the article and suspects that you did.

•What are the principles involved? What do you do? Do you deserve to be fired? Who is at fault?

You are the PR Director for a publicly traded computer company in California

 You put out a press release announcing your company’s quarterly earnings. The Los Angeles Times transposes your earnings per share (42 cents vs 24 cents). In all the other papers it is correct. Investors in the Southern California area, significantly increase their holdings in your stock. What action would you recommend?

1. Call the LA Times and point out the mistake. 2. Ignore the mistake because it is their responsibility to get

it right. 3. Re-issue the entire release and cite the LA Times’

mistake. 4. Notify shareholders that the information they were

given may have been incorrect.

You are a VP of a large PR agency

 A major client of your PR agency notifies you that he has decided to give his account to another agency. You know that the other agency had, years ago, gotten in trouble because one of their account executives was paying kickbacks in order to keep a particular client. Your account executive told you that he thinks the agency bribed the client to land the account. What do you do?

1. Tell the client about the agency’s reputation and advise them to investigate.

2. Ask the client to review the exact reasons why they had decided to make a change.

3. Fire the account manager for losing the client. 4. Forget it. A client who accepts kickbacks isn’t worth having.

You’re the Ex. VP of PR for a multinational telecommunications company

 You are managing a major press conference in New York. All major print and broadcast media are there. As the head of PR, you open the conference and act as MC—introducing speakers, managing the Q and A. Just before the conference starts, the CEO calls you over and says, “Be sure to give the first question to Bill from the Times. I promised him he would be first and I gave him a special question to ask.” What do you do?

1. Do what the CEO asked you because she’s the boss and the question is probably about something very important.

2. Ask the CEO what the question is because you are supposed to be knowledgeable about all important issues.

3. Respectfully refuse to do so since the CEO has interfered with your relationship with an important media outlet.

4. Agree but when the Q and A starts, call on someone other than Bill.