Even the big guys make PR mistakes

As I sipped my cup of lukewarm coffee this morning and read PR Breakfast Club's daily newsletter, I came across a post titled "How not to do an announcement." 

At first I thought – oh this has to be good because in the end, is there really a "right" way to do an announcement?  Doesn't it depend on the client? The goal they have in mind? The type of announcement?  So then I got to reading and it showed a bunch of the partner quotes that Google and Motorola pulled referring to their acquisition announcement. Here they are:  

“We welcome today’s news, which demonstrates Google’s deep commitment to defending Android, its partners, and the ecosystem.” – J.K. Shin, President, Samsung, Mobile Communications Division

“I welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.” – Bert Nordberg, President & CEO, Sony Ericsson

“We welcome the news of today‘s acquisition, which demonstrates that Google is deeply committed to defending Android, its partners, and the entire ecosystem.” – Peter Chou, CEO, HTC Corp.

“We welcome Google‘s commitment to defending Android and its partners.” – Jong-Seok Park, Ph.D, President & CEO, LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company  

Really?  Did they not even take a glance at the quotes?  We all know that as PR people, we are usually the ones developing quotes on behalf of our clients to ensure that our message gets across.  This goes to show that even the brains behind the largest communications announcements make glaring mistakes.  I wonder if we will hear any defensive remarks from these folks as a result of posts like these – something like, "on the tight timeline we were working with, this is what our partners came up with."  

I will now go back to defending my lukewarm cup of coffee and its partners.