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They're Here! Case Study

Chase Bank was hosting its annual media reception and press conference at the ABA convention in Honolulu. 60 Minutes arrived uninvited and demanded to attend and film the events. This presented Chase with difficult decisions: (1) whether to let 60 Minutes in given they were uninvited; (2) if to allow them to film the press conference which had never been filmed before; (3) if to let them film the informal cocktail reception; (4) if to grant them a separate interview with the bank president; and (5) if to alter the relaxed format given 60 Minutes' presence. Chase had only 10 minutes to make these high-stakes decisions.

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Caila Joice Favor
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132 views2 pages

They're Here! Case Study

Chase Bank was hosting its annual media reception and press conference at the ABA convention in Honolulu. 60 Minutes arrived uninvited and demanded to attend and film the events. This presented Chase with difficult decisions: (1) whether to let 60 Minutes in given they were uninvited; (2) if to allow them to film the press conference which had never been filmed before; (3) if to let them film the informal cocktail reception; (4) if to grant them a separate interview with the bank president; and (5) if to alter the relaxed format given 60 Minutes' presence. Chase had only 10 minutes to make these high-stakes decisions.

Uploaded by

Caila Joice Favor
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CASE STUDY: They’re Here!

Suppose you gave a party and 60 Minutes showed up at the door. Would you let them in?
Would you evict them? Would you commit hara-kiri?

Those were the choices that confronted Chase Bank at the American Bankers Association
convention, when 60 Minutes came to Honolulu to "get the bankers." The banking industry was
taking its lumps. Profits were lag-ging. Loans to foreign governments weren't being repaid.

Financing to bankrupt corporations was being questioned. And it was getting difficult for poor
people to open bank accounts.

Understandably, few bankers at the Honolulu convention cared to share their thoughts on
camera with 60 Minutes. Some headed for cover when the cameras approached. Others barred
the unwanted visitors from their receptions. In at least one case, a 60 Minutes cameraman was
physically removed from the hall.

By the convention's third day, the 60 Minutes team was decrying its treatment at the hands of
the bankers as the "most vicious" it had ever been accorded.

By the third night, correspondent Morley Safer and his 60 Minutes crew were steaming and
itching for a confrontation.

That's when 60 Minutes showed up at our party.

For 10 years, with your intrepid author as its public affairs director, Chase had sponsored a
private convention reception for the media. It combined an informal cocktail party, where
journalists and bankers could chat and munch hors d'oeuvres, with a more formal, 30-minute
press conference with the bank's pres-ident. The press conference was on the record,
no-holds-barred, and frequently generated news coverage by the wire services, newspapers,
and magazines that regularly sent representatives.

No television cameras were permitted.

But when we arrived at Honolulu's scenic Pacific Club, there to greet us- unannounced and
uninvited were Morley and the men from 60 Minutes, ready to do battle.
The ball was in our court. We faced five questions that demanded immediate answers.

● First, should we let them in? What they wanted, said Safer, was to interview our
president about "critical banking issues." He said they had been "hassled" all week and
were "entitled" to attend our media reception. But we hadn't invited them. And they
hadn't had the courtesy to let us know they were coming. It was true that they were
members of the working press. It was also true that our reception was intended to
generate news. So we had a dilemma.
● Second, should we let them film the press conference? Chase's annual convention press
conference had never before been filmed. Television cameras are bulky, noisy, and
intrusive. They threatened to sabotage the normally convivial atmosphere of our party.
Equally disconcerting would be the glaring camera lights that would have to be set up.
The 60 Minutes crew countered that their coverage was worthless without film. Theirs,
after all, was a medium of pictures, and without pictures, there could be no story. As
appetizing as this proposition sounded to us, we were worried that if we refused their
cameras, what they might film instead would be us blocking the door at an otherwise
open news conference. So we had another problem.
● Third, should we let them film the cocktail party? Like labor leader Samuel Gompers,
television people are interested in only one thing: "More!" In the case of our recep-tion,
we weren't eager to have CBS film the cocktails and hors 'd'oeuvres part of our party.
We were certain the journalists on hand would agree with us. After all, who wants to see
themselves getting sloshed on national television when they're supposed to be working?
● Fourth, should we let them film a separate interview with our president? Because few top
people at the convention were willing to speak to CBS, 60 Minutes was eager to
question our president in as extensive and uninterrupted a format as possible. Safer
wanted a separate interview before the formal press conference started. So we also had
to deal with the question of whether to expose our president to a lengthy, one-on-one,
side-room interview with the most powerful and potentially negative television news
program in the land.
● Fifth, should we change our format? The annual media reception/press conference had
always been an informal affair. Our executives joked with the journalists, shared
self-deprecating asides, and generally relaxed. Thus, in light of the possible presence of
60 Minutes, we wondered if we should alter this laid-back approach and adopt a more
on-guard stance.

We had 10 minutes to make our decisions. We also had splitting headaches.

Questions
1. Would you let 60 Minutes in?
2. Would you let them film the press conference?
3. Would you let them film the cocktail party?
4. Would you let them film a separate interview with the president?
5. Would you change the format of the party?

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