Blog Relations

We don’t normally blog here about politics, but from a marketing and PR standpoint, I’m fascinated by the public admission yesterday by Charles Kennedy, leader of the UK’s third party, the Liberal Democrats, that he has ‘a drink problem’.

It was classic last-ditch ‘crisis management’. After years and years of denying that he had a ‘problem’, the genial Kennedy had to deal with members of his own party who had leaked evidence to a TV programme. So of course he had to come clean and win lots of points for his ‘courage’ and ‘openness’.

I don’t think it will save him. Too many ‘nice’ Liberals in the Parliamentary Party have got their knives out for him. But I do think it went down well with the public. They like Kennedy because he is very personable, and almost unlike almost any other politician, you might even invite him into your own home. His nickname ‘chat-show Charlie’ reflects his, informal, conversational style.

What should we make of it? On the one hand it’s good that the age demands openness and frankness. It’s good that we now like our politicians to appear to be human beings and to talk to us, rather than lecture us.

On the other, it’s a bit depressing that you can downlplay a big problem just by talking about it in a relaxed sort of way. If you hit the right tone, you can win over the public on almost any issue, and hardly anybody notices that you’ve been covering up in a big way for a long time.

However you look at it, the informal style is a huge winner, and anyone in marketing should take note of it. It’s why those who promote blogs go on about ‘joining the conversation.’