Tony Schwartz, creator of the “Daisy” commercial, died this past week. Schwartz will long be remembered for his insights into communication, namely the power of emotion and the role of ads to surface feelings from the audience rather than to educate the audience with facts. I made the pilgrimage to Schwartz’ compound upper West Side Manhattan compound in 1985, where he was nice enough to further elaborate for me the theories from his book “The Responsive Chord.” Anyone who is serious about being a master communicator should watch all of Tony’s old TV commercials as well as read his books.

NBC’s Tim Russert died yesterday. One of the things I will remember him for was his expert use of videotaped soundbites of his interview subjects. Russert could host nearly any politician on his or her own petard. Russert was convincing because the video didn’t lie. Russert, more than any other modern journalist, taught politicians the importance of crafting every single soundbite out of their mouths, unless they wanted the soundbites to come back to haunt them.

John McCain can be a great speaker, especially when he is a little bit angry and speaking without notes. The problem is that he consistently (at least 50% of the time) is boring, mundane and flat, due to poor reading of a speech. Barack Obama is occasionally flat and has too many “uhs” and “ums” (especially during a media interview), but Obama is consistently (over 80% of the time) a great speaker. He’s smooth, fluid, emotional, and compelling.

My prediction: This spells doom for McCain. Since the modern TV era (1952), the general election candidate who is the better speaker has always won the presidency. (I grant you 2000 and 2004 can be debated due to the poor speaking skills of Bush versus the irritating speaking styles of Gore and Kerry).

But 2008 is a very clear-cut contest between someone who is a great speaker most of the time (Obama) and someone who is a poor-to-middling speaker most of the time (McCain). I’m predicting a clear-cut Obama based purely on his oratorical talents.

Speaking of Roger Ailes, he truly is the matter of the sound bite, especially when there is invective involved. If you want a weekly or daily tutorial on great sound bites, do what I do, I have set up a free Google news alert to send me an email every time Roger Ailes is mentioned in the media. Typically, I am rewarded with some golden nugget where Ailes has skewered some hapless CNN or CNBC executive. I might not agree with Ailes very often, but you can’t challenge his status as king of the sound bite.

“Dark Genius” is a new book out about the life and times of Roger Ailes, the longtime GOP political operative and Fox News Channel founder. The book isn’t great, but Ailes life is so fascinating, it almost doesn’t matter. If you are interested in media, politics, and communication, you really can’t go wrong learning more about Roger Ailes. The book earned its place at the pool this summer.

It is important to look good and reflect a positive outlook about your industry during an interview. It is equally important to know the most current facts about your industry seconds before the interview takes place. If you do not know the most current information you run the risk of looking foolish if a story has been released and you know nothing about it.

Let’s review. After the Kentucky Derby race where Big Brown won and Eight Belles had to be put to sleep, an interview was conducted by Bob Costas in the winners circle with David Novak, president of one of the sponsors who seemed unaware of the tragedy that was going on around him. He said, “Well, Bob, what a great day for the commonwealth of Kentucky and the world. On behalf of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver’s and A&W, Yum Brands is the proud sponsor of the greatest event in the world. Thank you very much.” (http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/07/business/sponsor.php)  He expressed his joy and excitement about the win for Big Brown, yet seemed to ignore the sad moment of Eight Belles. Most viewers thought it was a PR move to avoid any negative feelings. The truth, he had no idea that Eight Belles had been euthanized. The result was devastating however. People were furious with him according to the International Herald Tribune, one viewer said, “Based on the YUM reps’ disgraceful smiling and product plugging - while Eight Belles was dying yards away from them - I’ll never buy ANY of their products again.” (http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/07/business/sponsor.php)  Yikes!
           In hindsight it seems like an honest mistake. In actuality this type of blunder is easily avoidable. Any time you are going to make a TV appearance make sure you know what is going on around you. If you are doing a phone interview, go to Google and see if any news stories recently came out about your industry. If you are at a conference, ask for a newspaper, or simply pay attention to discussions going on that may affect you.

Question from a reader:

 TJ, why do you recommend that people never say “no comment”…there are plenty of times when we need to say that we decline to comment on something (pending litigation is a good example).

TJ Response: