By Tracey Mendrek, Senior Consultant
The June issue of Vogue magazine is not exactly the place you would expect to find a public relations success story, but in Amanda Foreman’s article Crown Heights the details of Queen Elizabeth’s spiral down after Diana’s death and her reinvention as the wildly popular monarch of today is told in compelling detail.
The article is a lesson in what to do in the face of a public relations crisis. The first step is admitting that you do, in fact, have a crisis and then working quickly to assess the damage. Of course it never hurts to have a prime minister who is vested in your success, but that person could be, in your world, the consumer, the employee, the board of directors or the legislator. Working with that person you can identify the steps required to rebuild the reputation, the brand or the financial stability of the entity involved in the crisis.
Perhaps the greatest take away from the article is the quote from the Victorian novelist George Eliott: “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” Ironic in this day and age that George Eliott was actually a pen name for Mary Anne Evans, an English woman who could not write as herself and be taken seriously.
We should consider that quote as we assess our latest crisis, personal or professional, and be comfortable with the opportunity to change. If an 86-year-old monarch can change, then there really is hope for our clients and ourselves to “be what we might have been” had we not taken that wrong turn or made that unfortunate decision.
I have included the link to the story for your summer reading pleasure.
https:///www.amanda-foreman.com/PDFS/Vogue%20June%202012.pdf