Melissa Chungfat

“Credibility rests in good actions, not good PR.”-James Hoggan

Yesterday I volunteered for the 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. shift for the Canadian Public Relations Society conference. I don’t know how I mustered up enough discipline to wake up that early.

I was working as a book host selling books by several of the event speakers, including David Suzuki and James Hoggan from Hoggan and Associates. Yes, that’s the guy that started DeSmogBlog to report on climate PR.

I began reading his latest book Do the Right Thing and it is a very genuine account of the role the public relations industry can play in doing harm as well as good. When it comes to honest PR, the key is to do the following:

1. Do the right thing
2. Be seen doing the right thing
3. Don’t get #1 and #2 mixed up

The role of communication is very similar to power: it can be used for good or for bad. Effective communication has been used to convince people that smoking is good for you to instigating genocides.

But effective communication has also enabled global collaboration to serve the public, held corporations accountable, and saved the lives of people around the world.

Hoggan used communication for good with DeSmogBlog. In his book, he talks about why he began the influential site.

When he began reading the analysis of the science, he was surprised to find that professional scientists, with few exceptions, agreed that humans are the cause of global warming.

But there were different conversations happening outside of the scientific community that was giving the impression of confusion and debate. Hoggan as convinced that, “The public argument about climate change had little to do with science and a great deal to do with public relations.”

He became angry and was offended the fossil fuel and car companies were investing so much in districting the public.

Here are some of the outcomes of DeSmogBlog since they lanched the site in 2005:

• Became one of the 12,000 most popular blogs out of 62 million.
• Became popular for mainstream journalists by summer 2006.
• Became a trusted information source and database for the mainstream media.

One of the most interesting outcomes of DeSmogBlog was when they posted a leaked document that was about to be released by the industry-funded think tank Fraser Institute.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was about to release its Fourth Assessment Report in Paris, a document that would help the IPCC win a Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. The blog team learned that the Fraser Institute was about to release a counter report called the “Independent Summary for Policy Makers,” filled with summaries from so-called experts that were paid to criticize the reports.

When the team posted the leaked document, the traffic when up by a factor of 20 and they were receiving media calls from mainstream media across the continent.

Hoggan’s main message is that actually doing the right thing is priority and that honesty is the best PR. He said, “People will forgive almost anything but deceit.”

When he worked for a client that made huge mistakes, they spent hours coming up with the usual PR tactics to the point of exhaustion. Then Hoggan finally asked, “What is the right thing to do?”

Then the conversation changed, even though it was awkward. They finally decided to be honest about the mistakes and tell the public. What happened was the stocks actually went up after they told the truth.

Hoggan works as the Chair of the David Suzuki Foundation. Anyone who knows Suzuki knows how honest he is and will call out politicians and companies in public. Before Hoggan introduced Suzuki for the keynote address, he spoke about how Suzuki has sometimes gotten him in some heat.

Hoggan attended a conference in Alberta where everyone else was from the oil industry except him. Someone went up to him and said, “Are you the PR guy for David Suzuki?” Then he was given a newspaper on the front page quoting Suzuki saying that Ralph Klein wasn’t fit to be premier because of his position on the tar sands.

He spoke about how Suzuki’s honesty and convictions defies many PR tactics.  Yet he consistently ranks highly as being among the most trusted Canadian by the public and the polls keep going up in his favour. Hoggan said that Suzuki proves that, “Big reputations doesn’t come from big PR. It comes from big values.”

During the keynote address at the CPRS event, Suzuki’s key messages were:

The economic system is so fundamentally flawed that it is destructive. Triple bottom line won’t help if we have the current system as our dominant system. We need to change the economic structure instead of trying to save an old one that doesn’t work.

Economic growth alone should not be equated with progress. If we destroy the very things that keep us alive like our waters and trees, you can’t buy the services nature provides.

Harper is wrong to say that we can’t meet Kyoto targets because it will destroy our economy. Sweden has consistently reduced their emissions with strong environmental regulations, including very high fuel taxes that keep growing, but their economy has had double-digit growth in the past decade.

Good ol’ Dave.

There is much power that comes with the ability to collaborate and hold people accountable. Organizations have no choice but to be honest because the truth can be revealed in the click of a mouse.

I think we can and need to handle the truth.

Check out:

• 10 Tips for Communicating in Tough Times
• Us Now
• Toxic Sludge is Good for You