Let me first state…I love our military. And I can’t thank them enough for their service. However, I want to use the recent “Storm Area 51” and subsequent Air Force press release as a learning opportunity.
For those of you unaware, a Facebook group has been gaining more and more popularity encouraging thousands of people to show up to Area 51 and storm it…in order to (and I quote) “see them aliens.” Absurd, yes? It gets better. In reading through the various Facebook posts, it’s clear that 99.8% of the posters know it’s a farce and are playing along with the farce (there’s always that 0.2% that are serious).
Here’s where things go off the rails: The Air Force (which operates an active training facility at Area 51) caught wind of it. There’s an old saying “discretion is the better part of valor;” that the Air Force should have heeded. They (the Air Force) put out a notice that ended with “we stand at the ready.”
Yeah.
It’s not that a threat from the most powerful military in the world against some pranksters seems beneath the Air Force (though, it is), it’s that the Air Force missed an opportunity to rise above; to use the situation to enhance their image.
The Air Force (and other branches of the military) have had some recruiting problems the past few years. While AF hit their revised (downward) goals in 2018…I’m sure they’d agree that the numbers could be better. What if, instead of threatening some wanna-be-alien-chasers, they used this as an opportunity to gain some solid press?
Imagine if the AF came out and said:
“We’ve heard there’s a movement to “storm Area 51” and see them aliens. How about you Aim-High and help us kick ET’s ass instead?”
Or,
“Don’t storm Area 51, storm our recruiting offices and Aim High with us…maybe we’ll let you take a peak at them aliens** (**Disclosure, sorry to disappoint, no aliens here at Area 51).”
PR is an opportunity to enhance your image or stumble. The Air Force’s response was a bit tone deaf and a little too threatening for my taste given the context of the situation. Yes, I get the need to protect assets and the need to deter bad behavior…but there are ways to accomplish these goals while also earning some strategic communications wins.
How we respond to situations, especially through communications impacts our brand. We need to analyze the situation, evaluate options and then act. Where we get in trouble is when we jump to action while skipping the first two steps. The age of the Internet means once a press release is out there…it’s out there forever. Keep that in mind the next time you want to fire off a reactive message.
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