NextGen PRose

Ketchum: How We're Preventing Another Williams Debacle

Ketchum has announced its plans to avoid future controversy such as it experienced during the past week with the Armstrong Williams debacle. Critics have come down hard on Ketchum, the DoE and Williams when the USA Today unveiled that Williams was being paid by the White House through an arrangement by Ketchum to advocate the No Child Left Behind Act.

Among the new guidelines to prevent future mishaps of this magnitude, Ketchum stated "We are putting in place a new policy for the signing and authorization of contracts with spokespeople." Perhaps this is a necessary step for Ketchum as a result of the media frenzy, but one that will weigh on the agency work flow.

I think it is worth taking a look at the perspective offered by Julia Hood about the whole situation. Hood wrote this editorial partly in response to Ketchum CEO Ray Kotcher's Op-Ed piece for PR Week in which he gives his defense and perspetive.