Sports Direct’s celebrity PR problem
Sports Direct is the kind of company I love as a journalist.
Covering Mike Ashley’s retail empire is like shooting fish in a barrel whilst tripping on LSD — it’s just so easy, but, afterwards leaves me asking “did that really just happen?”
MPs finding a hidden camera in a meeting they had at Sports Direct’s warehouse, which was allegedly planted to record their conversation, is a particular highlight for how utterly insane things have become.
But one thing I find puzzling is the company’s complete lack of engagement with the press, thanks, it would seem, to Sports Direct’s PR agency Keith Bishop Associates (which is 51% owned by Mike Ashley).
Earlier this week another scandal befell Sports Direct, when the Financial Reporting Council said the company’s accountants, Grant Thornton, would be under investigation for not disclosing Sports Direct’s business interests with Ashley’s brother.
In all the coverage I read, nowhere was Sports Direct quoted. In the Times the company couldn’t even be reached for comment.
Why is KBA taking this approach? I know it’s not much fun having to spend every waking hour attempting to singlehandedly hold back the tide of shit Sports Direct seems to attract.
But, KBA has got far more chance by actually engaging with journalists rather than ignoring them. Even a simple “we have acted in accordance with our accountants and will assist any inquiry” would have done.
No other business or company I’ve covered has simply ignored all requests for comment, however bad the story might be, and I can’t imagine many financial PRs would recommend this as a strategy.
However, it got me thinking which other parts of journalism does the “couldn’t be reached” approach actually work?
And then I remembered my time as a showbiz reporter.
The tactic was regularly used by celebrities and their PR reps when they wanted to avoid a story being published. Saying “no comment” to a story means you’re not denying it and, for most tabloid lawyers, that’s enough to publish.
PRs got wise to this and would just ignore our calls. One time, we got wind that a famous (and litigious) celebrity had had a love child. But the PR fobbed us off for weeks on end and ignored our calls.
I spent weeks driving around south London trying to track down the mystery woman and became a semi-regular fixture in Westminster registry office, hoping the birth certificate (with the celebrity’s name in the parent box) would be filed to provide the proof (birth certificates are public documents which anyone can see).
My point is — KBA need to stop playing the celebrity PR game, which they seem to know about thanks to their roster of celebrities including Nancy Dell’Olio, Linda Lusardi and Flavia Cacace (you know, the one in Strictly).
All that’ll happen is journalists will get fed up and just start bombarding Mike Ashley’s mobile with calls and texts instead, until they get an answer. If that still doesn’t work, they’ll start calling his chairman. Then his non-executives. It won’t be long before fed up news editors start dispatching journalists to Mike’s house to get answers (not necessarily out of malice, but to cover any argument the company could make that they weren’t approached for comment).
And even if all that does not work, the next scandal will still be printed anyway, because proving a business scandal — typically based on documents and emails — is far easier than proving a showbiz tale (typically with little public interest, usually based on the gossip of a celebrity hairdresser).
Luckily, KBA will have a chance to put everything right next week, when Sports Direct holds its half year results. They could give full access to Mike; get all the scandal stuff out the way; and maybe even get to talk about how the business is running. They could even show journalists around a store to see the company’s work in action.
Then again, Mike might prefer to crawl back under his cloak of victimhood and rail angrily against the press to anyone that will listen, whilst fondling the wad of £50s in his pocket, convincing himself that everyone’s just jealous and envious of him.
It’s a tough choice. But if KBA have any financial PR credentials, you’d think they’d go for the former. Wouldn’t you?
