FEMA tops 13th annual PR blunders list for 2007

It has been yet another banner year for all manner of PR gaffes and errors. The 13th Annual Top 10 PR Blunders List, compiled by San Francisco's Fineman PR includes a phony press conference, a buzz-marketing bust-up and Los Angeles County's favorite party girl. Yet FEMA, the beleaguered federal assistance agency that recently lost a federal court battle with The News-Press over public records, can't seem to get its act together. It's the top PR blunder of 2007.

Here's the top 10: 1. "No reporters? No problem."

Already troubled by continued claims of inadequate disaster response and wasteful use of funds, the Federal Emergency Management Agency truly fumbled when it held what the Washington Post described as a "phony press conference" in response to Southern California wildfires. "Questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters," "lob(bing) one softball after another so (Vice Administrator Harvey E. Johnson, Jr., could) praise FEMA's work," said the Post. Homeland Security Department head Michael Chertoff was reported by CNN, CBS and others to have said that "it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things (he has) seen since (he has) been in government." FEMA became defensive and insisted that reporters were expected - albeit with only 15 minutes notice of the conference - but did not show up, and that the questions posed by staffers were originated by reporters.

2. Buzz marketing gone bust

When Boston residents suddenly noted blinking, cryptic devices attached to bridges, bus depots and subway stations, they alerted city authorities, who shut down sections of the city to remove the devices and ensure that they were not related to a bomb threat or other terrorist activity. Turns out that Turner Broadcasting-affiliated Cartoon Network arranged for the covert placement of the battery-powered magnetic signs in 10 U.S. cities to promote offbeat program "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."

3. "Why I hate race-baiting columns"

The true "what were they thinking" moment in this year's Blunders: when San Francisco's AsianWeek, the self-styled "voice of Asian America," published a brief column in February entitled "Why I Hate Blacks." The offensive piece ran in the middle of Black History Month in a publication based in what is supposed to be one of the most politically correct cities in the U.S.

4. Iggy come home!

Ellen DeGeneres might have overdone it when she tearfully pled, during a taping of her popular talk show, for the return of Iggy, a dog she had previously adopted and given to her hairdresser's family after it took issue with her cats.

5. "Not so simple life"

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was widely criticized this year for reassigning socialite Paris Hilton to privileged home confinement - complete with Mrs. Beasley's Gourmet Cupcakes - after completing only three days of her 45-day sentence for violation of her probation for alcohol-related reckless driving.

6. When the hand that feeds bites

Pet products, most notably Menu Foods, took a severe PR beating this year after thousands of cases of illness and death among U.S. pets were attributed to use of contaminated ingredients from China.

7. LUV: Not in the air

Southwest passenger Kyla Ebbert was threatened with removal from a San Diego to Tucson flight for wearing an allegedly inappropriate outfit.

8. If you can't stand the heat ...

Famed restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow bought a full-page ad in the New York Times to decry Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni's no-star review of his Kobe Club steakhouse.

9. Lost in translation

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger blundered when speaking at the annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists when he told the assembled journalists, "'you've got to turn off the Spanish television set' and stay away from Spanish-language television, books and newspapers" in order to "learn English quickly."

10. "over b4 it began"

Rosie O'Donnell, although scheduled to part ways with "The View" in June due to contractual disagreements, arranged to leave the program a month early after repeated on-air clashes with conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

San Francisco-based Fineman PR (www.finemanpr.com/) assembles the annual PR Blunders List as a reminder of how critical public relations is to businesses and organizations.