With all the negative news in the press lately–from the travesty that is U.S. politics to the tragedy that is Aurora, CO and the subsequent NRA dustup, sometimes it’s nice to see communications used in a classy, nice but effective way.
Such is the case of Patrick Wensink, who commissioned a cover for his book, Broken Piano For President, that ended up looking a lot like a Jack Daniels label. As you might expect (although apparently Patrick didn’t), the brand police over at Jack Daniels got involved. And as you might also expect, typically these things can become, well, contentious and directive.
Not so this time. They sent him and extremely polite, understanding, and pleasant letter for once, which you can read about here. It’s the kind of cooperative tone that makes us proud to be in the communications business, rather than being embarrassed by the likes of Ryan Holiday, the lying jerk and “media manipulator.” The letter is non-threatening, helpful, understanding, and amazingly effective. Someone was channeling Dale Carnegie, a practice well worth resurrecting, don’t you think?
This is so great — thanks for bringing that classy letter from the people at Jack Daniel’s to our attention. It’s interesting that we don’t often pause to recognize truly excellent communications practices, when we’re busy being distracted by tragedy and horrific PR tactics. Thank you, @rustyspeidel for celebrating a “win.”
Holy cow! That letter is awesome! It’s like they actually let the communicators write it (with legal’s blessing) instead of the other way around. I can’t believe they offered to help pay for the redesign. Something that creates a compelling reason to change it.