March 28, 2003

Can this reputation be saved?

Charlotte Beers
Former Under Secretary, 
Public Diplomacy
and Public Affairs

The short answer:
Her reputation, like that of the U.S. in the Muslim world, is going to take a lot of work.

Press releases on the State Department Web site tell the story of Charlotte Beers’ recently truncated career in public service. In October 2001, she was sworn in as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. At the time, she was a highly respected executive in the advertising industry, having served as Chairman of two of the top 10 worldwide advertising agencies: J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather. A prominent milestone on her resume is that she was the first female Product Manager for Uncle Ben’s Rice. The apparent premise of her employment was that if she could market Uncle Ben’s, she could market Uncle Sam.

18 months later, a very different release was posted by Secretary of State Colin Powell: “Charlotte Beers, a key and vital member of my team, is leaving us shortly for health reasons.” He left it to us to define the type of “health reasons.”

Perhaps he was referring to the health of Ms. Beers’ PR program. With a budget of $1 billion—that’s with a b—there has seldom been more money spent with less accountability and less success. Her measurement was based on unreliable “man in the street” interviews, and she couldn’t even tell how many people had seen her ads. Read this PBS interview with Ms. Beers for more background on her program and its results.

Or perhaps Powell was referring to the health of Uncle Sam’s image abroad. Ms. Beers’ ad campaigns—warm and fuzzy stereotypical images of happy Arabs—were ineffectual at communicating that we really aren’t at war with Islam. And was she not cognizant of the fact that in the Far East the majority of the population is Muslim but there are almost no Arabs? The former head of two agencies ought to know that actions speak far louder than words, and that even $1 billion worth of advertising is not going to make Muslims love you while you are preparing an unprovoked attack on a Muslim country. See this article for more on her mixed success.

Or perhaps Powell was referring to the health of the communications industry as a whole. As a highly visible female communicator with a conspicuously large budget but a conspicuously failed program, Beers would inevitably become the target of countless critiques, barbs, and parodies. Removing her would at least give the pundits one less PR person to kick around.

Can someone like Ms. Beers go back and pick up her career where she left off? No doubt. There are people out there who have bankrupted companies and later resurfaced to run successful agencies. Ours is nothing if not a forgiving industry. And hey, if Monica Lewinski can make a living after serving the White House, we’re sure Charlotte Beers can. —KDP

This issue is on us!
In celebration of our first birthday, all articles in this issue are free of charge! Here is what is new this month:

Army Intelligence:
Army Public Affairs Gets It Right this Time

Four Tips on Measurement When Your News Is Just Not Getting Out

Five Crisis Management Firms

Seven Experts on Accounting for Extraordinary External Events in Your Ongoing Measurement Programs

Bach to Basics: The Symphony Searches for a New Audience

Report from the Miami IIPRRC conference

Moves and Shakeouts

Can Charlotte Beers’ Reputation be Saved?

...And Found Lacking

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