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by Colin Pennington on 1.19.2010 in Public Relations 0

I think it’s safe to say that few were shocked when Mark McGwire admitted to using steroids.  Regardless of whether you choose to believe him, not to believe him, or simply don’t care, there are some obvious PR moves that worked to his advantage and others that didn’t.

Consider a few aspects of the Mark McGwire –Arie Fleischer PR blitz.

The good:

Controlling the Situation

The past admission of Alex Rodriguez was a result of media reports and witness testimony that forced him to play catch-up.  In the case of McGwire, there was no substantive proof of his use of performance enhancing drugs other than the infamous “I’m not here to talk about the past” testimony at the congressional hearings and the statements of Jose Canseco, a former teammate who has been profiting on his indictments of former players since he left the game.

Put whatever weight you want on the evidence against McGwire, but he was, for the most part, able to admit his use on his own terms, thus gaining initial control of who he did interviews with and what he said.

While McGwire’s control of his messages weakened shortly after his admission (which makes sense given the high profile nature of the situation), it never hurts to at least start with the ball in your court.

The “Blitz”

Perceived as genuine or not, the initial blitz of interviews granted by McGwire shows his intent to acknowledge use and show contrition in an effort to re-gain as much of the public’s trust as possible.

Timing

The timing appears carefully coordinated. By making his admission well ahead of winter baseball events in St. Louis and spring training when McGwire takes the field as a coach, he set the stage for less distraction for the Cardinals during the pre-season. From a PR tactic standpoint, it follows the old adage of, “Get it all out there now so it is less likely to be everyone else’s problem later.”  Unfortunately, there’s one part to this timing that hurts, but I’ll get to that later.

The not so good:

Messages

It’s common for PR practitioners, specifically those dealing with crisis management, to lay out a set of talking points for a client to keep them on ”message.”  In the case of McGwire, it appears he is relying on them so much that his answers are becoming less authentic with each interview.  Whether he likes the media or not, McGwire is certainly no stranger to it and his rehearsed answers are causing critics to question his sincerity.

Additionally, while McGwire’s original statement was thorough, he’s seems to lack the desire to answer or expand on other questions that many believe require additional explanation. He started the fire, and so it’s up to him to put it out.

Timing

The bad part of the timing is that while yes, the admission comes well in advance of spring training; it also comes just one week after the naming of the 2010 Hall of Fame class, which McGwire does not appear on.  I personally think that other aspects of this story overshadow the HOF issue, but listening to sports talk radio in St. Louis, the critics are out there.

So there are just a few thoughts on the PR aspects of this situation.  What do you think? Knowing there’s no way to win over all of his critics, do you think Mark and Arie did a good job? Or, do you even care?

NOTE: Thanks to the entire Brighton PR department for their contributions to this post!

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