By Jenny Fujita and Joy Miura Koerte, Fujita & Miura Public Relations
Julius Caesar's assassination, plotted by his close acquaintance and employee, Marcus Brutus, on March 15, 44 B.C.E. made the “Ides of March” a day that symbolized betrayal to the extreme. Why was Caesar killed? There are two sides to the story of course. One says Brutus was just doing his country a favor by offing Caesar, a power monger, but then again, Caesar had earlier spared Brutus’ life and was dating Brutus’ mother.There are lots of individuals like Brutus out there today: the hackers that broke into Paris Hilton’s cell phone and posted its contents on the Internet for the world to see; Enron’s top executives who lied and took their bonuses knowing stockholders would suffer in the end; and the bartender who adds water to the vodka.
Selling someone down the river is bad PR. Sure, Brutus, Hilton’s hackers, Enron’s execs, and the bartender realized short-term benefits through their actions. But eventually, disloyalty leads to some version of the Fall of Rome.
Loyalty counts for a lot in PR. Loyalty breeds long-term relationships and trust, which are foundations of great PR. Importantly, in a close-knit community like Kaua`i, loyalty is an essential value of our culture and business dealings. Constituents here take note if a business was not loyal to them, and they base their patronage on this fact. Act with integrity at every opportunity and take care that your actions and decisions are highly loyal to your publics. Be as loyal as a UH Warriors fan, even if your team doesn’t win, even if the players are not in the room, even if just a little duplicity seems profitable or expedient. After all, Brutus’s don’t last long in a small community like ours.
