Frank X. Shaw, lead corporate communications for Microsoft (MSFT), is now under PR media scrutiny for tweets posted this weekend, regarding a recent story by The New York Times. The story kind of vilified Mark Penn, the mastermind behind Bing’s Don’t get scroogled campaign, and triggered a bit of controversy, and public reactions partially supportive of Google (GOOG), some feeling that Microsoft was bullying its opponent, others congratulating Microsoft for the fun approach.
But for Frank X. Shaw, there are unresolved issues with the story, that go deeper than public perceptions. He believes that Google execs promoted inaccurate statements and pitched the story to the NYT themselves.
In the story, Jill Hazelbaker, Google comms exec, explained, among others, that Google spends money on lobbying, but that, unlike Microsoft, the “focus is on Google and the positive impact our industry has on society, not the competition.”
This statement triggered Frank X. Shaw’s Twitter storm. Over the weekend, he sent a few tweets to Jill Hazelbaker, asking her to come out of the shadows to address the issue:
@jillhazelbaker says Google not focused on competitors. She better let @ericschmidt know so he stops blaming us for all their problems.
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) December 15, 2012
Hello @jillhazelbaker. Could be time to come out of the shadows and unprotect your account. We could talk. Or tweet.
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) December 15, 2012
So, @jillhazelbaker how about a little light?So far this year, Google has outspent Microsoft by a factor 2.3 to 1 lobbying.
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) December 15, 2012
The PR industry was quick to report on the story, after all, this is an interesting episode between two PR giants, where one keeps quiet, while the other is not afraid to voice controversial opinions in the open. Shaw calls his approach transparency and accused Google of running in the shadows instead of responding publicly. He also suggested that Google has been pitching the story to BusinessWeek and NYT.
Turns out if you shine a light on Google like we did via Scroogled, Gmail man, putting privacy first, they run for the shadows.
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) December 15, 2012
Want to talk about privacy? Name the time and place. And don’t sent the NYT next time. Or BusinessWeek. Use your own voice.
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) December 15, 2012
Some journalists see Shaw’s attempt to communicate with Google’s PR head as an “attack.” Hardly so. Let’s call it passion. The issue with passion, however, is that it is not accepted by old-school business media as appropriate conduct. But this passion is what Microsoft needs today to fight such a powerful rival.
As the story unfolds, there are also questions regarding Microsoft’s means, specifically anti-Google ads promoting Bing as a more honest search engine. Some feel that Bing’s Google-bashing campaign is “desperate”, inappropriate and unfair. Others see it as a fun creative effort. Whatever it is, it works, according to Frank X. Shaw, the campaign is working great. And whatever critics may say these days, Penn and his team know their job: in 2012 Microsoft experienced one of its biggest US consumer perception surges in two years.
About Mihaela Lica Butler
