Scott Morrison didn’t need adman Russel Howcroft, but a PR pro
Bringing in an adman to deal with problems created by an adman is a problem, Good Talent Media's David Latham suggests. Prime Minister Scott Morrison didn't need a Russel Howcroft marketing workshop before Christmas, but rather a PR practitioner's advice.
Paul Keating once described former Liberal leader, Andrew Peacock, as “all feathers and no meat”, “a painted, perfumed gigolo”, and a gesture politician with no policy substance, floating conspicuously down the political river to nowhere land.
Scott Morrison – the Prime Minister who cut his teeth in the world of advertising – is in danger of projecting a similar image, and calling in prominent adman Russel Howcroft, as revealed last week, hasn’t helped his cause.
Morrison called upon the industry’s own Howcroft
Just before Christmas, and Morrison’s now infamous trip to Hawaii, the PM’s staff attended a workshop conducted by the Gruen panellist and PwC chief creative officer. While Morrison himself didn’t attend, the AFR reported that the government’s marketing of its climate change policies was discussed, but the workshop was designed to develop sales strategies for 2020.
But for some of us working in PR, the vast superficiality of Morrison’s ad-based response is not only the wrong fit for the bushfire crisis, but the wrong fit for the lion’s share of his work in government.
Ads work well when you’re marketing a simple product or message to a vast audience in a short space of time. Like during an election campaign.
But you can’t run a country hopping from high-gloss statement to high-gloss statement. At some point you have to roll up the sleeves, tuck into the hard policy work, prosecute debates and find a way through thorny issues.
This obsession with short bites that are light on detail has led opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, to lampoon Scott Morrison as ‘the ad man with no plan’.
Australians want a Prime Minister with a plan for jobs, a plan for wages, a plan to make life better for families.
Today they got an angry, shouty ad man with no plan – but a lot of excuses.
We deserve better. pic.twitter.com/PK34pmOLJm
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) January 29, 2020
And it’s seemed to be extremely hard for Morrison to shake the ways of advertising. He released an ad in the middle of the bushfire emergency, and apparently thinks pithy slogans and slick campaigns can help resolve complex problems.
The approach, including Howcroft’s recruitment, reveals either Morrison’s cynical underestimation of the public or overreaching confidence in the power of advertising. Possibly both.
In the world of PR, there’s nothing wrong with memorable sound bites. They often live on beyond the story. Cue Tony Abbott and ‘the shirtfront’ or Chifley’s ‘Light on the Hill’, and, of course, Albanese’s ‘ad man with no plan’.
PR practitioners encourage clients to use them, and to hone their key messages that will inevitably be shrunk down to a five second grab. But there’s got to be substantive work going on behind the scenes that the messages meaningfully connect to.
The grab is the distillation of a truth or actual policy.
And no amount of political theatre can hide the absence of them.
Bringing in an adman to deal with problems created by an adman is, in itself, a problem.
If Morrison had instead brought in a PR person, they could have told his office that content and action are congruent. If you have a meaningful policy direction, it’s a much easier sell.
So next time Scott, don’t send an adman in to do a PR pro’s job.
David Latham is the public relations manager at Good Talent Media, a PR agency specialising in traditional, social and digital media, and political lobbying
topics
adman
Advertising
bushfires
David Latham
Good Talent Media
opinion
PR
Russel Howcroft
Scott Morrison
Anyone who thinks the lines between PR / Advertising / Media / Social / brand are that well defined that you need a ‘pr strategist’ vs a ‘advertising strategist’ is both mistaken and decidedly old school. The lines have blurred – massively.
I think Howcroft would have advised as well as anyone in the country. However, you can only shine a turd (leader who doesnt have a clue what he’s doing) so much.
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If you think what Russel and his team at PWC do is ‘ads’, you’re completely misinformed
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Really?
If the PR pro’s job is to point out that you need policy strategy, then that’s the first 30 seconds of the meeting done.
PR people are even less strategic than Ad people in my experience. Even though they may be better at conveying complex information, there is generally even less evidence and insight in the strategic thinking of a PR campaign – just a feel for what’s sellable from the perspective of a media outlet, as framed by the issues of the day (or hour).
The key point here (as the author notes) is the absence of a coherent policy platform, with runs on the board to demonstrate its credibility.
If we persist with the marketing services framing of the situation, it’s failure at the ‘business strategy’ level which means there’s no foundation to build the ‘brand’ on, compounded with a lack of focus on what matters in the wider context.
Let’s work out what they stand for, why, and how they’re doing meaningful things about it.
Then let’s talk whether PR spinners or Ad people are the best salespeople for the message.
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… and you don’t imagine Russel understands that simple truth?
Really?
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To call Russ simply an adman is an appallingly naive description of his experience expertise and judgement.
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Pretty sure he needs more policy, not more PR. Can’t talk your way out of a situation you behaved yourself into.
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Russel is one of the smartest decisions they’ve made.
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As much as I love Paul Keating I must say it was I who coined the phrase All feathers and no meat. Keating has never claimed it as his own. I wrote a Bulletin newspaper ad all these years ago and that was the headline. The Labor party printed off extra copies and used it as a campaign poster. I’m happy it is still mentioned and that Paul Keating thought it good enough to use.
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