Madden Mischief

“Good choice,” I told Michael Mota when he approved this photo.  It’s to go with a news release in response to stories in a newspaper seeking to paint him a color opposite to one he’s wearing.

Because of a series of stories all by one dogged reporter at the Boston Globe seeming bent on darkening Mota’s bright reputation as a successful entrepreneur, he retained an attorney to sue them.

Mota didn’t hire just any lawyer, but Peter Ticktin, a long-time friend of someone else who feels “witch hunted” by adversaries, Donald Trump.

Tickin wrote the book “What Makes Trump Tick,” and he should know as they both attended the New York Military Academy together.

Feeling in the same cross hairs of this one reporter’s “witch hunt,” Mota had Ticktin sue the Boston Globe charging most of her stories about him were “false and defamatory.”

Colors matter

Working at major television networks, I learned colors matter in clothes, not skin.

Lighter colored suits seemed more likely to hang out with truth, honesty and innocence.  After preparing many network executives for news conferences and then noticing how well they did, I discovered the power of wearing lighter colors.

Back when I was at ABC, after I had the network’s president, then Fred Pierce, change from dark to lighter colored suits, I noticed he would do better and was friendlier even in the face of occasional rough questioning by reporters. 

When I shifted over to NBC to join Fred Silverman who had taken the helm there as its CEO and brought me along with him as his special assistant and Vice President, I would always try to make sure the top executives whom I media trained there kept their dark, corporate-looking suits tucked away in closets. 

Smile Power

I also noticed when wearing lighter colors, executives tend to smile more and there’s no greater sign of self-confidence, or expression disarming as, a smile, especially during a grilling interview when your company’s not doing too well.

One top executive’s wife once told me I helped make her husband even more friendly at home during one stressful week of poor ratings. I had coached him to answer reporters’ tough questions, even if nasty and adversarial, as he would his own kids who were just confused and searching for knowledge.  Think of reporters not as attackers, but just wanting to understand better how things worked.

Put down your baseball bat, remove your gloves, take off the face mask and just explain as you would to your own kid who was just not understanding something and do it with that a disarming magic, a smile!

Tom Madden is a specialist at public relations, in particular crisis management, who has media trained many of the country’s top executives at major corporations.  His firm TransMedia Group has clients worldwide.  When not building reputations or putting out fires, he’s writing his weekly blog or his books, his latest “Planetary Lifeguard, Blowing the Whistle on Climate Change.