Don't Rely on Chance Disappearances of Bad PR

An incredible day.

Anyone in the United States or anywhere else in the world who was alive on Thursday June 25, 2009 and old enough to understand, had to be drawn into the dramatic news events of the day as two pop icons died within hours of each other.  The flurry of media activity was almost numbing as they hustled to deliver and interpret every last morsel of news about the passings of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.  Snippets of a young Michael singing and dancing and a  young Farrah posing in that famous red bathing suit were flashing wildly over both the television screen and the Internet.

And while I watched it all play out, I thought that Governor Mark Sanford was lucky to have really dodged a bullet.  I mean his horrible story was still flying fairly high when these two deaths occurred. Within seconds  news about his sordid affair and stupid lies was whisked off of the front page and relegated to page 6 or 7 and then to the "who cares?" category.

Thursday, June 25th, was just another example of the fragility of the news today and how someone's humiliating story can be overshadowed by some other human tragedy or natural disaster.  In the PR business, there is no way to plan on using this media phenomenon as a communications tactic when something really bad happens to your client and you just want the story to fade away.  But, it sure is lucky when it does happen.  Just ask Governor Sanford...if he's in town this week.