2024 has been a spectacular year for high profile examples of appalling communication.
At times it’s seemed as if there’s been a kind of competition to overlook well-established rules of effective communication.
The good news is that the worst entries in this apparent competition have been so bad as to be seriously laughable – providing positive learning points for us all.
So in this spirit of seasonal jollity, let’s look at some of the 2024 communication low-points – leading up to the latest example which qualifies for The MasterChef Christmas Turkey Award as being the worst of the worst.
2024 was long-destined to contain a British general election.
This gave one-time British Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, ample time to decide the date for it.
Alas when he finally made the long-awaited election date reveal, he managed to sweep the idea of sensible communication planning out the 10 Downing Street front door and onto the footpath.
The result was that the most critical political news that Rishi Sunak announced during his troubled time in office was unveiled in the midst of a British downpour.
So the doomed announcement was made by a dripping Rishi Sunak wearing a quickly saturated prime ministerial suit.
The rain made it almost impossible for TV viewers to absorb the various political points the PM sought to convey without voters thinking:
• “Why on earth isn’t this speech being made indoors?”
• “If this government has the right plans for the next 5 years, why can’t it properly plan for this one single vital moment?”
• “And how come – in this dampest of countries – haven’t you at least armed yourself with an umbrella?”
The blunder gave cartoonists the ideal opportunity to portray Rishi Sunak as the bigtime loser he was about to become – such as in this effort from The Times.
Below is a video reminder of the infamous drenching:
The sopping election announcement gave all those reporting on the event the perfect doom-laden metaphor upon which to speculate about the government being washed away.
And that came to pass.
When the votes were counted, the Conservative Party attracted a mere 23.7% of the national vote – its worst result in the party’s history.
The government lost 251 seats – including those of 12 Cabinet ministers as well as the one lost by previous Conservative Prime Minister, Liz Truss.
Communications Lesson 1: Take every possible step to avoid important announcements getting lost amidst potential distractions.
Meanwhile across the Atlantic another outgoing leader was making so many verbal gaffes that his continuing candidacy for the American presidency became impossible to sustain.
Alas advancing age can sadly mean that some have trouble getting words to come out in the way they intend.
And in the glare of a NATO summit in Washington attended by the alliance’s leaders – as well as the wartime President of Ukraine – Joe Biden made the misspeak of all misspeaks.
In a western world where there is a clear western hero – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky – and a clear western villain – Russia’s invading President Vladimir Putin – President Biden somehow managed to mix up the two names.
As he introduced the Ukrainian leader with the words “Ladies and gentleman, President Putin”, it became the moment when the Biden campaign for re-election could not plausibly continue.
Joe Biden did at least realise his mistake and correct himself.
But it was such an embarrassing moment fanning concerns about his mental astuteness that previously sporadic calls for an end to his candidacy suddenly became a chorus.
It was a gaffe that’s hard to watch.
In case you missed it, here it is again.
Communications Lesson 2: If you are due to perform at a crucial public moment, make sure you practise your key lines so that the neural pathways in your brain are rehearsed into place to help you get them spot-on when it really matters.
Moving from the outgoing American President to the incoming one, the soon-to-be-President Donald Trump has (again) continued to demonstrate a worrying disregard for truth – as monitored by The Washington Post and others.
This tendency reached a new low in the presidential debate with Kamala Harris where Donald Trump repeated an untrue claim that illegal American immigrants in the city of Springfield had been eating the pets of local residents.
This involved one of the craziest rants in the history of presidential debates with Mr Trump claiming “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
When corrected by one of the debate’s moderators whose team had contacted the Springfield City Manager who insisted there was no evidence for the claim, Mr Trump persisted with the fiction.
If you need a reminder of this surreal moment, here it is:
Declaring something that isn’t true is never recommended.
But it did not stop Donald Trump being subsequently elected.
Nonetheless:
Communications Lesson 3: To protect your credibility when speaking in public and elsewhere, only say exact truths.
If you thought the communication gaffes of 2024 couldn’t get any worse, then do consider the end-of-year problems of embattled British TV chef Gregg Wallace.
Admittedly the problems of Gregg Wallace have been building over many years – and involve not just what he allegedly says but also what he allegedly does.
There’s been a flow of allegations against the now-sidelined presenter of the BBC MasterChef programme.
They concern what he’s been saying and doing – mainly when the TV cameras are not running.
Much of this involves allegations of sexual harassment towards women.
The allegations have come from more than a dozen women across a range of projects Mr Wallace has been involved with over a 17-year period.
In the final part of 2024 they have all exploded together.
Mr Wallace’s lawyers have claimed that it’s “entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature”.
But a growing number of those who have been professionally involved with Mr Wallace say otherwise.
This includes Mr Wallace’s ghost writer, Shannon Kyle, who worked with him on his book “Life On A Plate”.
When assessing the denials of Mr Wallace and his lawyers, it’s worth considering the graphic details Miss Kyle put forward in this interview with BBC’s Newsnight where she says Mr Wallace repeatedly sexually harassed her.
Whatever you believe about the allegations against Mr Wallace, from a public relations perspective he has seriously damaged himself with a social media video he posted in response to the claims.
He made the serious error of focussing on those who he said were mainly making the complaints more than the actual substance of the allegations themselves.
Gregg Wallace he insisted the complaints have come from “a handful of middle class women of a certain age”.
You can view his video here – followed by discussion about it on Sky News.
Verbally attacking your critics based on the class or age you perceive them to be is never a good idea.
The video caused outrage – so much so that Mr Wallace produced another social media video the next day explicitly apologising for it.
Alas by then it was too late to undo the damage.
Whether or not Mr Wallace makes a return as a MasterChef presenter is something that 2025 may well reveal.
But his social media videos on the matter will not have helped his cause.
Communications Lesson 4: In a media environment and beyond, behave impeccably – whether or not you are being recorded. If you ever need to respond to criticisms of your behaviour, or that of your company, focus on the issues – not on your perceptions of the class, age or gender of those complaining.
Communications and media interview response training helps you and your team avoid the kind of mistakes highlighted so far – and others.
More positively, training inspires participants to project a more impressive image for you and your organisation.
You can check out the range of communications training available at:
https://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/michael-dodd-services/
Here’s to your splendidly successful communications in 2025 and beyond!
And here’s to a wondrous seasonal break before it all starts again.
Keep smiling seasonally