Following the 4 p.m. press conference of Jimmy Haslam, President and CEO of Pilot Flying J Travel Centers, I talked with Hubert Smith of the Hubert Smith Radio Show to compare what was heard and seen. At the conclusion of the interview, Mr. Haslam stands to walk out and the door is opened for him by Public Relations Expert Tom Ingram.
Is this an indication that the public relations firm Moxley Carmichael that has represented Pilot for so long lacks the expertise to assist Pilot anymore?
In typical Cynthia Moxley fashion, at CEO Jimmy Haslam’s first press conference, she patronizingly seated Hallerin Hill next to Jimmy. What the hell for? What a childish attempt to “add some color” to the Pilot debacle. Maybe in all this we will see Moxley is really best suited to wasting taxpayer and rate payer money through her Rural Metro and KUB “clients” than those pesky private sector ones. But not to fear: the Pilot-FBI-IRS disaster did not prevent her from tweeting Inatagram photos of meals she had been served (that most of us can’t afford) at swanky restaurants around town. I was worried there for a while after the FBI-IRS-Pilot raid we wouldn’t get to see her heaping platters of surf and turf and glasses of exotic wine…but I think she only took one day off.
Didn’t she come from TVA? Like it really takes real talent to do pr for a govt agency? lol She’s in way over haer head. Maybe McIntyre can hire her
In my opinion, Moxley is ineffective outside of Knoxville and Knox County, where she has the ability to push people around, backed up by the business interests of KUB, Pilot, the KNS rag, and other players in the community. I find her messaging uninspiring, not very creative, and downright irrelevant most of the time.
In my opinion, all of the messaging is purely to begin to steer thinking in the 12 county community the federal jurors will be pulled from to hear any case that may be brought against Pilot of any of its officers/directors/etc. In that context Ingram is very good as putting a message out there in small bites so the potential jury pool can digest it. Also, as the civil cases begin to pile up against Pilot, most of those cases will be brought in Knox County and the Ingram messaging is very well suited to play in the community. Most of Ingram’s success is attributable to the money the Haslam’s raised for candidates such as Alexander/Corker to pay Ingram anyway.
The notions of a compliance officer and the internal investigation team are not products of Moxley or Ingram’s spin, that is from the Neal & Harwell firm, developing some proof and some witnesses for trial to ensure that the rebate jacking wasn’t known to the officers of the company.
Get your popcorn ready.