The dangers of ignoring the elephant

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When there’s an elephant in the room, introduce them

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People who don't truly understand the media interview process or how journalism works will often bring an element of wishful thinking to their interviews. Even though they know on an intellectual level that a reporter is almost certain to ask them a very obvious, important and potentially controversial question about a given story, they pretend that it doesn't exist. They prepare for the interview as if that question can't possibly be asked. And when it does invariably get asked, they try to dance around the question, weasel out of it or get flustered and crash and burn.

You've obviously heard the expression 'the elephant in the room'. But if you don't know where it originates from, it's from an 1814 fable by Ivan Krylov (well, that's what Wikipedia says, anyway). The fable was titled, 'The Inquisitive Man' and tells the story of a man who goes to a museum and observes all kinds of tiny details but who fails to notice an elephant in the museum. Apparently people liked the phrase and so it stuck around. 

Where media relations is concerned, this idea is more prevalent when you're dealing with a reactive or issue/crisis situation. We've all seen executives or celebrities make this mistake of ignoring the elephant over the years (the BP oil spill, the Rob Ford crack scandal, the Tiger Woods scandal, United Airlines, Boeing...the list goes on). To me, this doesn't come down to how smart someone is, how nice they are or what a great person they might be. It comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of the media relations process. 

Key Takeaways:

  • If there's a glaringly obvious core to the story that you want to gloss over or distract reporters from because you fear it will be unpleasant, understand that the instinct to hide it or minimize it is your brain playing a trick on you. It's a trick because avoiding it won't make the reporters stop asking questions about it. It will only make them more determined to get to that core.

  • If you're going to introduce the elephant in the room, do it early. Lead off the interview with it. Do it on your terms. A great example of this is the Maple Leaf Foods listeria crisis from 2008. Very early on, the company's CEO Michael McCain did a short YouTube video where he very much introduced the elephant in the room (that some kind of mistake had led to customers becoming sick and dying). You can check out that video by clicking here.

  • If you want to see what happens when you avoid introducing the elephant in the room, check out this story about XL Foods' response to an E. coli crisis. A very different response than Maple Leaf Foods and a very different result.

  • Introducing the elephant early can change the tone and outcome of a media interview for the better. You can't always prevent negative things from happening but you can control your company's response to those things. Introducing the elephant helps your company to come across as transparent, empathetic and responsible.

  • When introducing this topic, always try to connect it to some positive action or response. For example, outlining the problem is great but providing a proposed solution, action plan and/or apology is better. Always connect the response to your audience.

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