The only way for the shamed Brewers cheater to worm out of this one is to invent a machine that erases everyone’s memory.
Not only did Ryan Braun cheat and lie, he also tried to take down that poor drug tester. Unforgivable in my mind.
Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel asked several veteran PR people and others to see if there is a way for Braun to rehabilitate his reputation. Or at the very least, regain a shred of dignity.
From Ari Fleischer, who advised on Mark McGwire’s coming out:
“There are three parts to it,” Fleischer said about what Braun should do. “One is a full mea culpa now, like Mark McGwire did. He has to bare his soul, explain he messed up. But it has to be heartfelt and he has to mean it. It can’t be mouthed. It can’t be somebody else’s creation. It has to be genuine or fans and reporters are going to see right through it.
“If he were a client, I would really work him over to make that assessment,” Fleischer said. “If they just can’t pull it off, because they are too arrogant or because they don’t believe it, then I would say you don’t have a way back.”
Part two in his plan is a little easier.
“Go away,” Fleischer said. “Then lay low. Go away. Accept your punishment.”
And part three, “Come back and get hot,” Fleischer said. “You let your bat do the talking.”
From Fay Vincent:
“I would say two things,” Vincent said. “One is, he should see that the problem is a very serious problem for baseball, not think that the Ryan Braun case is about Ryan Braun. It’s really about baseball, which is much bigger than any of us. And secondly he should, in my view, go to somebody like the commissioner and say what can I do to go around and make it clear to fans and to people in baseball that we’ve got to do something to keep these drugs from infecting the rest of the game?”
From Steve Eichenbaum of Eichenbaum and Associates in Milwaukee:
“Create a 30-second or 60-second TV spot in which you do a complete mea culpa. Admit to using PEDs and to lying. Apologize especially for lying to the fans, team, organization and your friend Aaron Rodgers. Roadblock every local newscast within the sports news on the same night, at either 6 p.m. or 10 p.m. Do not promote the spot. Just let it run. At the end of the commercial, tell people you wanted to address the fans first, and you will address the media in a press conference the next day.“
Fleischer is right. The most challenging thing for Braun and his PR counsel is for Braun not to sound scripted in any way, shape or form when he finally does speak. And he best SPEAK and not just release a statement as has been rumored this week. If he does the latter, there is little chance of restoring his image in the eyes of baseball fans, even in Wisconsin.
I would go one step further than all of those quoted in your story, Ed, and that’s for Braun to privately and publicly apologize profusely — fall on his proverbial sword — to Dino Laurenzi Jr., the specimen collector whom he accused of being everything from an anti-semite, a Cubs fan out to get him and of course, calling him out without name in an impassioned presser for mishandling his urine, which led to Laurenzi’s family being threatened.
This PR case study from Braun’s camp has seemingly been all about him from the initial spring training 2012 press conference to the vague statement in the MLB news release in which he accepted his suspension. This is bigger than Braun, the Brewers and Major League Baseball. When you start to point fingers toward people in an effort to get out of one’s own mud swamp, it’s a very difficult cleanup effort no matter how much cleansing solvent is involved.
Very well done Ed. I agree with Ari’s assessment and would add that he should also return his MVP award to the ‘runner up’ that year’ to tangibly show something he gained by using PED’s was not deserved in light of the drug use and the uneven playing field. This would have a profound impact for him from a PR standpoint.
Than, go away as Ari suggests…