Book review: Retired Marine gives tips for the perfect press pitch - Military Books - Military Times

Book review: Retired Marine gives tips for the perfect press pitch

You won’t find the behind-the-scenes creative secrets that produced attention-getting promotional slogans such as “We don’t promise you a rose garden” and “The few, the proud, the Marines” here.

What you will find in “Command Attention: Promoting Your Organization the Marine Corps Way” is advice — on nearly every page — that will help anyone, military or civilian, professional or volunteer, do a better job of providing and pitching information to the public and the news media. The common-sense tips are applicable inside newsrooms, too.

Success requires chutzpah and humility, says retired Marine Col. Keith Oliver, chair of the Public Affairs Leadership Department at the Defense Information School.

Those are “the two qualities you must possess in abundance,” he writes. “There’s a time to lowball it, to let the other fellow do the talking, to let the [Marine] Corps’ deeds speak for themselves.”

“And there’s a time to press the attack, with jeep-stealing, headline-grabbing, over-the-top creativity and relentless salesmanship.”

“Relentless” must be Oliver’s middle name. He sees every opportunity, and sees opportunity in every mistake — he devotes a chapter to his gaffes.

He also observes that the public affairs role is finally being recognized as a key part of an organization, citing Army Gen. David Petraeus and retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni as examples.

“America’s future admirals and generals are observing — and applying — the reality that public affairs is important to their commands because gaining and maintaining public support for their policies is absolutely necessary for those policies to succeed,” he writes.

Here are some of Oliver’s suggested routes to success:

• Base newspapers and news sites: “To have any chance of being believed by Marines or by their civilian neighbors, your publication can’t look like a ‘military newspaper.’ Rather, it needs the look and feel of, well, a ‘newspaper.’”

• Process: “Your job is getting the word out — don’t get hung up on means.”

• Subtleties of communication: “Even in very public interactions, sometimes how we say it is at least as important as what we say.”

• Including canned material in speeches: “The last thing you want to deliver is a generic oratory that fails to consider your specific audience.”

• Respecting your audience: “Our job, your job, is to be keenly aware of that well-deserved cynicism on the part of your countrymen — and to combat it with ‘Truth, trust and credibility.’”

• Web sites: “Regular, if not constant, refreshment is the key — being sure not to sacrifice speed for accuracy.”

• Telling stories visually: “A sharp public affairs officer always offers the media an image, or an image opportunity.

“Whenever the new [commandant] came calling ... we would brief-up the photographers to shoot all the film they needed to capture a decent candid shot ... giving editors a refreshingly different view of the new top Marine.”

• Learning to work with colleagues who don’t report to you: “Your success at telling your unit’s story is always contingent on the cooperation of people and organizations that you do not ‘own’.”

J. Ford Huffman is a Military Times book reviewer.

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Command Attention: Promoting Your Organization the Marine Corps Way by retired Marine Col. Keith Oliver. Naval Institute Press, 180 pages, $25.95.