The Sound Of Silence

Is Hillary Ill?

If illness is hardly ever welcome, one could argue that it struck Hillary Rhodam Clinton on the worst possible time. Indeed, there is not a day that is more symbolic for the grieving people of The United States Of America than the commemoration of the 9/11 attacks. Her attendance to the event aimed at providing the public opinion with proof that she was a resilient and capable candidate, worthy of being elected as the next POTUS - the almighty commander in chief.

But instead of this, she sadly fainted and was evacuated by secret service agents into a black van. 

Finding refuge in her daugther's apartment, she reappeared 90 minutes later. In the meantime, her campaign had put out a statement saying that she 'was fine and she felt much better'. Mrs Clinton told journalists she was feeling great and simply declared: "It’s a beautiful day in New York".  All's well that ends well, isn't it? 
Actually, from a Public Relation point of view, not really...

The Naughty Cover Up

Ok, being struck by illness is not a big deal on its own, even less when you know that the fast pace of candidates' lives 58 days prior to the presidential election. But, and that is where something went wrong, in the hours following the incident, Clinton Campaign reported that the Democratic candidate had suffered from overheating and dehydration. Surprisingly enough, not a single word was stated to adress her fainting. 
It was not until 17.15pm, 6 extremely long hours later, that the campaign reported that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia and that her prescribed her antibiotics one day before her collapse. 

Silence = Inaction = BAD !

As Moore-Copple and Climek (2015) suggest, the first hours of a P.R. crisis have great impact on the following days, weeks and even month. More, they have found that inaction, or silence, was the worst response a P.R. department could adopt towards a crisis. Indeed, an immediate reaction from the organization is required in order to show a sign of control and authority and to reassure skateholders. Clinton campaign did the worst they could have done: staying silent for a whole afternoon.
The golden rule of crisis communication, they say, is to provide media with accurate and quick information...  It is no wonder analysts say that these 6 tremendously long hours of cover up and silence could (and still might) have cost her the presidency.
By doing so, Clinton campaign have increased voters anxiety and the lack of information opened the door to speculation, conspiracy theories - fueled by Trump campaign - and social media hysteria.

So, what did the campaign do right? 

Not much was actually done right by Clinton campaign...  

In my humble opinion, here's what they should have done: if the Democratic candidate had been honest in the first place, disclosing her disease but still showing that she wanted to be there to commemorate the attacks, that would have surely resulted in proving what she initially wanted to prove: her resilience and capability. Instead of this, the incident that occurred, and the messy communication that followed, just highlighted her lack of transparency and personal weaknesses. As a result, a P.R. fiasco, good job folks!

Things are never as bad as they seem, are they? At least Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's Communication Director, aknowledged their poor perfomance. 

And you, what would you have done if you had been in her place?

Colin Volvert, Master Student in Communication Science, Record Collector, Label Owner and Music Enthousiast.