Pinky rings, gangster suits and threats.
Isn't the Sopranos over?
May 2009

Kaylee Wallace, half of the heart-breaking on again, off again, heart transplant story of a few weeks ago has brought organ donation and ethics back to the forefront of public discourse.  But what began as a story of tragedy and hopefully triumph, as well as parents’ pain, has taken a serious detour as of late.

The focus of the story changed after the media dug further into the backgrounds of the Wallace family. Turns out, not only did Jason Wallace, Kaylee’s Father, have a penchant for unscripted and ill-conceived public rants against the hospital, but he was also up on charges for robbery and had his first court appearance last week.  Interestingly enough, Jason opted to forego legal representation at his first appearance, but instead he chose to have his PR man by his side.  Okay, so not having a lawyer with you in court was probably a bad move for Jason, but on the other hand having a PR consultant to help him out was theoretically a smart call. In theory.

Unfortunately, theories don’t always work out as they’re supposed to. Here’s where things went wrong.

First, his PR man decided he wanted to be ‘front and centre’ before, and after court.  He wanted to do the talking and in the process, he made the story largely about him – not about his client.  The fact the PR man in question was wearing a fedora, gangster-inspired suit and rather large pinky rings and seemed to have his own entourage only made the problem worse.  (Look at political spokespeople to understand how to manage things without being the centre of attention).

Second, he either didn’t train Jason properly, or gave him bad counsel.  Yes, it’s generally good to get the bad news out of the way first (and Jason provided no shortage of ‘bad news’ by way of his personal history).  But the idea is to bridge from the bad to the good.  The message should have focused on a “want to clear things up in court to focus on what’s really important; his daughter and organ donation in Canada .”  All stop. 

Third, his Good Fellas-inspired PR consultant decided he would threaten the media as a whole and tell everyone that only those who cover the positive side of the Jason Wallace saga (family, daughter, etc.) would gain access.  Yeah, threats tend to soften an audience up and help to build strong relationships with the media. Right… 

For whatever reason, Jason and his PR man made a number of poor decisions with respect to how to handle high profile situations like this.  And their decisions and actions would be comical, if not for the fact those decisions have done nothing to help the two girls at the root of this story.