Book Description

This fascinating exposé provides sobering insights on how falsehoods and distortions can play a role in determining what issues wind up taking center stage in our culture. . . . you can help change the system.-Former Surgeon General C. Everett KoopWe're gonna nail 'em!That's the threat made against Eric Dezenhall's clients - usually corporations and well-known people - by aggressors trying to launch media-hyped smear campaigns and attacks because they feel they've been wronged, or just because they want publicity. From Pepsi and ValuJet to Michael Ovitz and Kathy Lee Gifford, businesses and celebrities today are finding themselves the front-line targets of attacks by the headline-seekers, the news media, corporate stalkers, disgruntled former employees, individuals looking for a few minutes of fame, and many others. And it's crisis managers like Dezenhall who step in to reduce the damage, fight the bad publicity, and sometimes even turn the wave of negative opinion on the attackers themselves.Nail 'Em! is an exploration of the personalities, conflicts, and motivations involved in such attacks and Dezenhall's unique communications approach to slowing, preventing, and reversing such situations. While illustrating that these attacks are not merely communications problems, but real conflicts that can only be stopped when the aggressor is placed in jeopardy, the author examines the psychology of the attacker, notorious recent cases, his personal experiences, facts versus falsehoods, the role of the news media, and the popularity of victims in contemporary America. Nail 'Em! lays out a blueprint for reclaiming the public's good favor while erasing the attacker's allegations.Eric Dezenhall is a founding partner of Nichols/Dezenhall, a Washington, DC firm that oversees hard news media relations, crises, and marketplace assaults. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he also served in Ronald Reagan's White House Office of Communications.