The year of the Tiger

According to the Chinese zodiac, this is the year of the tiger. In the PR world, it's also starting to look that way. It's only February and already we've seen 2 PR disasters/sex scandals, not including Tiger himself. I brought up John Edwards in the last entry, and what do you know, it's happened again...only this time on Canadian soil.

TTC Chair and (ex)mayoral candidate, Adam Giambrone, has been caught in a sex scandal with the young Kristen Lucas, who has unearthed the affair to the media. Only 13 days into his mayoral race and he's already quit. So what happened?


PR Mistake #1: Not admitting to his affair before entering his name (quite publicly with his pathetic YouTube video) in the Toronto mayoral race. It's nothing new that a politician's life will usually end up spilled on the front page of any and every newspaper. In an ideal world, Trudeau's famous words: "the State has no place in the bedroom of the nation", would ring true, but unfortunately that's not the case. Knowing this, I don't understand why politicians continue to think they can hide their skeletons in the closet. Fact: the media is ruthless. They will dig and dig and dig until the bones are found. So Giambrone, you're a moron. Running for mayor isn't just a snap decision. He had to have known for months that he was planning to run, and yet he continued the affair until just recently. Until January 2nd, according to Lucas. Big no-no.
Solution: Either end the affair long before you decide to run for mayor, or admit to the affair before you publicize that God-awful excuse for a video.

PR Mistake #2: Lying about the kind of relationship he had with Lucas. It was a Jamiee Grubb move when Lucas went straight to the media and opened up Pandora's Box. According to Giambrone, the relationship between them was innocent and always in public. Nothing sexual. Has the Tiger incident not taught celebrities and politicians anything? Did Giambrone really think that he could half-ass his way through a confession and get away with it? Not with the media we have today. The kind of media that's become as aggressive and relentless as the paparazzi. Giambrone should not have lied, because by doing that, he's just begging the media to twist his arm until he cries 'mercy'. And that's exactly what the media did. They got Lucas talking about everything; whole conversations via text messages were published (another lesson that should have been taken from Tiger: yes, technology is convenient nowadays, but it will always come bite you in the ass) and a confession of how the both of them had had sex on the couch in his government office.
Solution: Admit to the whole damn thing before it gets to Tiger-scandal level. Admit the inappropirate affair, apologize and move on...which leads to mistake #3...

PR Mistake #3: Quitting the race (or half-quitting it)...When deciding to then quit the mayoral race because of the scandal, and doing it in a public forum, as Giambrone did, follow through. Don't cop out halfway through and let your executive assistant continue on. Yes, the reason for quitting was a valid personal matter, but he owed it to his supporters and potential supporters to stand at that podium and explain why he was stepping down. His public image has been destroyed even further now because of it. He now appears weak and incapable of handling tough situations (can you imagine if he actually became Mayor and had to deal with situations far worse?!)
Solution: Simple. Man up.

And so the Year of the Tiger continues...