Adam Dooley, President of Dooley Communications, was recently interviewed by Uniter reporter Kristy Rydz on communications and corporate social responsibility. The question: can companies that pollute credibly call themselves environmentally sensitive?

The story examines the dilemma and wonders if some corporate efforts are only so much ‘greenwashing’.

What’s your view?

I pity the communications people around Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams. He’s a blowhard at the best of times, but how do you handle his decision to have relatively simple heart surgery in the United States.

Choosing to pay for a U.S. hospital over a ‘free’ Canadian one is akin to poking a finger in an open wound.It says loudly that one of our country’s most prominent leaders has more faith in U.S. hospitals than our own. Simultaneously, it has dragged a taboo topic into the spotlight: those who can afford it, go to the U.S. for serious health issues. There’s no other way to put it.

His message is clear: Canada’s health care system is second rate and pity the poor suckers who have to stay at home to wait (and wait and wait) to use it.

It would have been a stroke of genius if he had intended to drive home those points in a very public manner, but Williams continues to strike the oft-repeated chord of Canadian politicians:

“I have the utmost confidence in our health-care system, I certainly do,” the 60-year-old said (in the Globe and Mail), perched on a leather chair in his condominium in Sarasota, Fla. “It’s a bum rap for someone to turn around and say, ‘Oh, Williams does not have confidence in his own health-care system because he has to leave the province.’ ”

A bum rap, eh? No, the only one who got the bum rap was the PR person who has to try to keep lipstick on this pig.

Williams’ “ass”-inine actions follow on the heels of popular mixed martial arts fighter Brock Lesnar’s condemnation of a Manitoba hospital last month. Lesnar went to a Brandon hospital in the middle of a diverticulitis attack. Unsatisfied with how he was being treated, his wife drove him to North Dakota for treatment instead.

Credibility is the most valuable commodity in public communications. These public dismissals of our hospitals only reinforce the general public’s too frequently miserable experiences with health care in Canada. Whether you’re in Brandon, Manitoba or St. John’s, Newfoundland… or Ottawa … it’s must now be a lot harder to pitch a positive story about our hospitals.

Last week’s Tiger Woods apology-cum-public flagellation was nothing if not a great case study for students of communications. The golf great continues to get awful advice (perhaps he’s acting as his own PR counsel?) on how to rehabilitate his image following last fall’s sex scandal.

From the cheapskate podium and ‘community theatre’ backdrop to the phony delivery of his ‘lines’, Tiger’s apology just drew attention to just how far he’s fallen. And deservedly so. While critics of PR say it’s all about spin and lying, this is a perfect example of one PR maxim I follow: “never lie.” Lies are almost always found out, or at least sniffed at. They obliterate credibility. Yet, here was a guy who told whopper after whopper. Pretending to be a pillar of integrity, morals and discipline, he made tens of millions of dollars on his image and has justly lost millions as his image has been stripped bare… much like his skanky mistresses, I suppose.

An apology was necessary. It should have come last fall, but it didn’t. In this case, he would have been better off giving an exclusive interview to a friendly source. The Oprah show would have been perfect. It would have given him the opportunity to tell his side of the story more fully and it could have showed him to be more human.

But aside from Tiger’s image and marital rehab, there were also lessons on how organizations need to deal with episodes like this.

Ernie Els complained that staging the apology in the middle of one of the World Golf Championship tournaments was  selfish. He was right, and PGA Tour commissioner Tom Finchem apologized to Els and other players saying: “You can never communicate too much in this business, and when you don’t, you usually pay a price. And that was a good example.”

I don’t have a lot of sympathy for Tiger. As my mother used to say, he’s made his bed and now he has to lie in it. That bed might not be as uncomfortable if he had been following good communications advice from the start. The same goes for the PGA Tour, which needs to make an extra effort now to adjust its marketing and branding. It can’t be considered Tiger’s tour any longer. If it is, then the tour will risk battering its image just as badly as Tiger has hurt already his.

This time of year is always very exciting for me personally as we get closer and closer to the Manitoba Communicator of the Year celebration. This year, CPRS Manitoba will present the third annual award on March 24 at the Hotel Fort Garry.

I remember when we first started talking about creating the award some four or five years ago. Nearly everyone, especially the CPRS Manitoba board, was enthusiastic. That’s not surprising as we’d been looking for some time for new ways to bring value to our members and to promote both CPRS and our profession in Manitoba. The award has done a great job of that so far and I’m very proud to have played a part in developing it and organizing the celebrations for the past three years.

I want to thank Marketwire for its generous sponsorship of the award since its inception.
The nomination deadline has been extended to Feb. 26. So get your nomination in soon.

And as a special lead-in to the award, CPRS Manitoba is also hosting a half day conference on social media this year sponsored by CNW Group. It features Keith Bilous, President of ICUC Moderation Services as keynote speaker. ICUC has quietly grown to be one of the largest online content moderation companies in the world right here in our own backyard.

The conference also has a host of other homegrown talent on two panels dealing with the changing face of news media and how to leverage social networks. Come out and see, hear and meet: Bruce Owen of the Free Press, Glenn Tinley of Studio Publications, Curtis Brown of Endless Spin Cycle, Shel Zolkewich of ShinyPackages, Corey Quintaine of Kildonan Place, Rebecca McCormack of Cake Clothing, Jason Hasselmann of New Media Now, and Colin Whitney of Mars Hill Group.

It’ll be a great conference with plenty of fresh case studies on how to make social media work for you.

Buy tickets at www.cprs.mb.ca. Early bird rates end March 5!