Newsjacking - When is the Right Time to Steal the Conversation?

“What were they thinking?”

This was my reaction to an international PR firm’s recent response to a celebrity’s suicide. The PR giant wrote a blog post that encouraged mental health professionals and those who suffered with depression to use the tragedy as an “opportunity to engage in a national conversation” to discuss the issue and bring attention to the topic. Although their intentions may have been virtuous, the agency received a tremendous amount of backlash for the post and they have since offered an apology.