Whatever you say, they'll call you a liar

Melbourne Herald Sun, Thursday 26, 2015

If you tell your audience that you are not what they think you are, they will continue to believe what they think - but now know you to be a liar, too. This is a public relations lesson many politicians have had to learn. The more you deny, the more they think you are lying. In the end, like the Cultural Revolution show trials, the only way out is mea culpa. "Yes I did it and I'm sorry."

Not just politicians, companies have had to learn this too. For 40 years Nestle has fought constant battles of accusation and denial over the marketing of its formula in the third world. The whole infant milk business has been hit by protests, boycotts, letters to the editor, parliamentary votes. It still hasn't ended. You wonder how this could be - now if you visit the Nestle mothers' web page you are greeted by the headline: "Breastfeeding is best". They promote breastfeeding for the first six months, with gradual introduction of "complementary" food.

This multinational must have spent millions over the past 40 years fighting protests and defamation cases. In fact they won a case fought internationally for over two years - their opponents were fined $400.

But a group called IBFAN UK continues to fight from a tiny office in Cambridge. Hundreds of volunteer groups around the world ban Nestle products from chocolate bars to Perrier mineral water. Nestle claims it complies with every WHO provision. But the more they plead innocence, the more they're called guilty.

So you think oil companies don't believe in climate change? Not so. See what ExxonMobil has to say: "A variety of policy strategies can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions reductions, such as cap-and-trade rules...and carbon taxes. ExxonMobil participates in greenhouse gas emissions trading when cost-effective, in areas of our operations where regulated trading schemes exist."

In fact they boast at length about the many measures they take to reduce carbon emissions and their research into clean energy. So where are these climate deniers? A few provincial politicians and Republicans. All the rest of the world is cleaning up its act - including the oil majors.

The same goes with tightening the belt. McDonalds gave up denying its responsibility for Australia's expanding girth. Now you will find it offering "healthier" foods through its McCafe. It has a Nutrition section to its web site and even offers a 14 page pdf book of information on nutrition, ingredients, and allergens. It will even help you find Halal restaurants.

Willie Wonka is in retreat. Cadbury will no longer make big rich chocolate bars. It has taken the pledge in the British government's anti-obesity drive and put a cap of 250 calories on all its single chocolate bars. In Australia, however, they blame the shrinkage on cocoa costs. The price, of course, remains the same.

Its new owners, Mondelez International of Chicago, is the latest food giant, having swallowed Kraft, Cadbury, Oreos, Nabisco, Toblerone, even Vegemite. The last thing they can afford is a Nestle-style boycott on their $46 billion world cash-flow. Especially when so much of it is centred on those little shelves around the cash registers.

So if you are faced with a PR disaster about your product, don't instinctively deny it. Find out the truth. Tell it, fix it, and face the world with a clean pair of hands. And hope that the truth will speak up for itself.