unicornnews: Obama/Bloomberg PR: "didn't know"

Back to America, and Team Obama had a tricky political PR challenge to deal with earlier this week, after the people who look after the President’s fleet of planes organised a publicity stunt that backfired.

For reasons no one is clear on, the Federal Aviation Administration decided they needed a picture of an Air Force One plane flying past the Statue Of Liberty for use in publicity materials. Rather than Photoshop such an image, they got one of the Boeing 747s in the Presidential fleet and two jet fighters to fly at a low height over Manhatten, photographing it as it went by, at a cost to the taxpayer of $328,835.

Rather than turning the photoshoot into an albeit expensive PR event in itself, they informed the relevant authorities about their plans in advance, but requested no one go public about them, possibly for security reasons. That decision, though, predictably back fired because the people of New York are, understandably, nervous of any large aircraft flying over their city at a low height.

As emergency phone lines became blocked as panicked New Yorkers saw the planes approach, the city’s media was quick to question who was behind the photo stunt, and why the public had not been warned of the plans. Media criticism became even more intense once the cost of the photo shoot was revealed.

Local and national political leaders were quick to respond, both going with a “we didn’t know, it shouldn’t have happened, we’re sorry” strategy, which looks like it might just have worked.

Obama’s people were quick to release a statement telling reporters the president had not himself been informed about the fly over before it happened, while a spokesman for New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said that his office had been told about the FAA‘s plans but that because of an oversight the mayor himself was not informed.

Obama said “It was a mistake… and it will not happen again”, while a spokesman for the Pentagon told reporters: “I think this is one of those rare cases where we can all agree it was a mistake”.

Whether New York’s media will let this one lie as “an expensive mistake” remains to be seen. Let’s just hope the FAA got some great pictures.

Posted Friday May 1 2009 by Chris Cooke

Related categories: Political Communications