Much ridicule has been heaped upon the ill-fated trip that the Big Three took to Washington DC to ask for a hand out.  No need to add to that…

However, until I read John Steele Gordon’s column in Forbes entitled “The Marie Antoinettes Of Detroit,” in which he commented about the private jet trip as the “dumbest public relations move since Marie Antoinette suggested the French peasantry eat cake,” did I realize that curiously enough, in all the conversations surrounding that extravagant lifestyle show of these three Big Honchos, did I hear any mention or criticism of their PR team.  Could it be that the culture of arrogance that has permeated those companies has also influenced their PR advisors, leaving their own reality check on a back burner?  What were they thinking?  As President-elect Barack Obama put it in a recent Barbara Walters interview on ABC, “what tone were they listening to?”

It would seem that they could have dusted off some basic PRisms, and used them to calculate some strategies such as:
1.    Consider every action taken by a corporate leader against the worst possible scenario and then devise strategies to head off any potential criticism or disaster.
2.    Pre-determine desired response and then plan how to achieve it.

Now comes the news that GM has pulled its advertising for the SuperBowl because its has no new cars to roll out.  Really?  If memory serves me correctly, there have been several seasons when they had no new cars to roll out, but kept their ad schedules intact.

Here’s a suggestion: adhere to the law of the jungle – survival of the fittest or, in other words, adapt or loose.  It may be the best of all times to humanize the big behemoth and do the obvious – lead by example.