Ekh
Elio Addict
I agree with most of this, but acknowledging the elephant in the room -- funding -- gains far more points for honesty than it loses for bringing up the fact that a problem exists. What I did like in his handling of this issue was that he seemed genuinely up-beat, relieved, and open about it, which leads me to believe he actually IS convinced the funding is going to be there.I would very much like to have seen him be more inclusive in the groups that the Elio appeals to. Class warfare is getting to be all the rage, and if he pigeon holes the Elio as a "rich man's toy", he's going to alienate an awful lot of potential customers! I physically cringed when he went there, and then didn't emphasize the fact that there are buyers from ALL walks of life who are putting their $$$ down to reserve an early spot in line! At nearly 55 I may not be a young person, but I, and I think most of the other folks on this forum, are FAR from being the rich folk that we were portrayed as.
Other than that, I think he did OK. I did cringe a bit at the "F" word reference, but I'm hoping he was indicating that those worries are nearly behind him. After all, emphasizing a negative that HUGE, is a PR no-no, unless you are in the process of slaying that dragon, and are therefore trying to put that negative to bed. I tend to worry more about what issues they DON'T address, as apposed to the ones they do.
Unless Mr. Elio is a complete idiot (and I don't think he is), he struck me as someone who is coming down the home stretch..... I sure hope I'm right!!!
After umpteen years in PR, I've never seen a client hurt by acknowledging reality. I had a VP at GE who called me into his office. "I thought I'd told you not to put such-and-such in "Engineering News." I nearly jumped out of the plane when I read it, and you are lucky to have a job."
However, when he got three letters from employees saying how much they admired his courage (their word) in acknowledging the issue, he called me back. I told him that it had been an inadvertent error, and how it had occurred, and that I was changing our proofing system to avoid repetitions. He told me he looked like a hero, and maybe he shouldn't have reacted the way he did...
Accordingly (not "so") I think Paul did well with this issue and actually gained far more than he risked by acknowledging it -- especially putting it as about past tense.
I thought the "F" word quip was actually funny, but you can't please all the people all the time. Humor in PR is ALWAYS risky for that reason. He should probably have left it out.