Thursday, February 5, 2009
Citi Belated Learns to Play the Public Relations Game
I did my blog this week on “Citi Belated Learns to Play the Public Relations Game”. I chose this article because of two reasons, one because it deals with the public relations class, and two because I thought it sounded interesting on how reporters use work life as a game and make a showing of it. This article starts off by telling us how much heat that the Citigroup corporation is getting from the media. They have been doing a lot of bailout funds and”… widely criticized for significantly decreasing their outstanding loans since receiving TARP funds late last year.” They also had just purchased a $50 million Falcon Jet. Citi finally released to the public about how much that they have in TARP funds, but yet they neglect to mention the other $75 million in new loans that the company had just extended. Citi management is not in full control of the company. Government negotiations are determining what is in the best interests of the company. Citi was suppose to be a big part of the New York Mets this season as they were sponsoring the Mets’ stadium, and now are trying to back out of that agreement. The government has paid some $45 billion to Citi via TARP and now politicians feel empowered to steer Citi in whatever direction they deem does the greatest public good. Citi has been around for a while and has done an alright job at keeping up with the times, but as an outside viewer I tend to get a bad taste in my mouth when I read things about how Citi’s CEO’s are buying new jets and knowing that they are available for personal use is just wrong. While knowing that the company is in a crisis with the economy, and needing governmental funds and bailouts I just don’t understand the meaning behind much of what is going through their heads.
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I totally agree with you. All of these banks and even the car companies. What are they thinking? Once you start making a huge salary do you leave common sense behind? How would they feel personally if they loaned a friend $100 so they could feed their family for the month. Later they discover this friend actually bought some electronic game station instead. I bet they would have a few words to say.
ReplyDeleteI think these big corporations forget who they are suppose to be helping and worry about themselves. With the bank accounts these executives personally must have, they could do without their salaries for a few months and that would help their companies and employees out big time.