For too long the seafood community’s passive posture with the media lead by a strategy that says we should agree to disagree while running from the fight has allowed reporters and producers to distort the real story on fish. Outdated thinking from dusty business books that suggest successful marketing strategies should include cowering in the corner while an aggressive media attack reigns fire on your position is what cost us so many battles before.
Running from the fight is no longer an option. Up against goliath media outlets these days Google ads, Facebook Ads, targeted banner ads, blogs and YouTube videos take rhetorical, digital, guerrilla warfare to a new level. Staying silent and waiting for the bad press to pass takes us nowhere. The sooner we rid ourselves and our industry of the attitude that we might as well not fight because we have no hope of winning, the sooner we start winning. We are not a third class protein that is lucky to get some good press and should roll over whenever mainstream media needs a sensational story for sweeps.
In today’s world, not talking to the media is not an option.
Monday morning quarterbacks whose strategies include remaining silent should probably do just that. Remember what Muhammad Ali said, “No one knows what to say in the loser's locker room.”
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November 30, 2010
