Ah, yes… The kind of slimeball consultant working for a slimeball client that would sue the Red Cross.

Having been both a press officer at a local borough council in London which had an appalling reputation for mismanagement (almost entirely deserved) “fire-fighting” continuously, and being a journalist at present dealing with the drug industry, I think I can gauge what the target for J&J ought to be.

If the dispute is presented as one where there are two sides, not necessarily even equal, but where J&J’s position is considered to have SOME reasonable basis; and if the ARC is seen as not entirely blameless, with some skeletons in its closet, then J&J can avoid caving into the ARC’s demands.

It helps that the drug firm has stated its objectives clearly and has now said it would expect to donate any damages claimed to philanthropic causes.

As you report, the fact that the firm was blogging before the crisis gives it a credibility it would not have if a specially-recruited “crisis management team” was issueing corporate-legaleze bullshit press releases.

[Disclosure: I was hired by J&J (via Adriana Lukas) to give a conference presentation on the tools of new media for their corporate affairs, and have dealt with Ray Jordan and Marc Monseau]

Just wanted to point out that J&J has been blogging for some time now and it gives them some credibility in this case. They have been listening and participating in the blogosphere before this issue (we PR folks don’t call them crisis anymore… , thus building their reputation.

Some companies might wait, listen and maybe even set up a “blacksite” or “crisis blog” just in case but that will not solve their problem and will not bring them a lot of support of the blogosphere.

J&J “blogger relations” will also help in this case. At least they know and have met the bloggers that matter in their industry.

This story has reached the websites of mainstream media but some analysis will be needed to see if the J&J blog has influenced their reporting. See Google News search results here: http://tinyurl.com/2fgjzg

Indeed, let’s watch this space….

Absolutely. I’m curious to see how far the ripples go. Is the world ready for corporate giants to don a human face and enter into open conversation? I’m sure the bloggers and the blog-aware out there will be receptive of the method even if they disagree with the corporate position. But will the general public pick up on the discussion? Will the message reach mainstream media?

And will J&J manage to keep the topic alive and fresh as events unfurl without getting bogged down in legal mumbo jumbo or excessive self-justification, either of which could alienate readers?

As they say, watch this space…