Get your facts right…

6th Apr 2007 @ 7.46pm

I couldn’t help but cringe with embarrassment for the PR lady widely reported this week to have written in a press release on behalf of her supermarket client that the tradition of giving Easter eggs represented the birth of Christ. Oops. Takes me back to my own early PR days when, on behalf of my confectionery and retail clients, Easter would herald the churning out of yet another consumer press release littered with Easter traditions and chocolatey facts and figures in our vain attempts to catch the eye of a sympathetic journalist who could no doubt recite every Easter tradition under the sun with his/her eyes shut. Except getting our facts wrong (and we didn’t have the internet to help us then!) was a complete no-no. Heads would roll.

OK, so that was a press release, rather than an anecdotal story about something that actually happened. It just reminded me of a question I was asked the other day relating to organisational storytelling: “Should a story be true, and always factually correct?” It might sound like an odd question, but it’s not always easy to find the ‘right’ story to illustrate an important strategic message, and there always lies a temptation to make a story up to create the purest form of illustration. The answer is that the fundamental facts of a story should absolutely be true in order to create credibility. It may not be a perfect illustration, but recognising and relating to real individuals’ achievements is really important if people are to believe in what the organisation is trying to achieve. Often, it’s the stories that are a little rough around the edges that are the most powerful, and if you’re trying to convince cynics, they’re more likely to be won over despite the odd flaw. Of course in true storytelling tradition the story is often embellished and changed as it is repeated by the storyteller in question, but the basic facts that underpin the message shouldn’t change. It helps if you have an efficient system for capturing, sharing and categorising stories, as you then optimise the chances of netting the right one for the job.

I’m sure the supermarket in question had something to say to whoever approved the above release, although some would argue that it was quite a PR coup to get a third of a page of coverage on page 9 of a national newspaper - and to get your own agency a mention too. Happy Easter everyone.

posted by Alison Esse
filed under Stories, Organisations