Questions abound

It was Saturday evening when the news about Joe Biden’s victory broke in Helsinki. Like so many people, Valtteri and I rejoiced, popping champagne and calling our friends to toast to freedom, democracy and the fact that the majority of Americans shared our values and beliefs. We laughed, we cried, we rode the celebratory wave all the way to Monday when reality set back in, bringing with it questions about what fresh terror may await us over the next two months, all the work we still have to do as a society, and, more immediately, why there was a press conference held at a landscaping shop.

What can I say? Absurdity with a side of snark is my brand.

In my previous post, I talked about how my background in PR has enabled me to spot a press stunt, especially one as obvious as Fabio taking a goose to the face on a roller coaster. But this situation—which, to be clear, involves a presidential campaign holding a press conference in a garden shop parking lot in the Philadelphia suburbs—was a little trickier to call.

Do I believe that someone in the Trump campaign dialed the wrong Four Seasons to book a presser? Yes. Of course I do. That scenario is not just plausible but highly probable.

But don’t get too mad at me (yet) for saying so, dear Trump supporters. Because I believe that’s the sort of mistake that can happen to anyone who has been working for 36 hours straight under the most stressful of circumstances.

I’ve never been part of a presidential campaign, but I have been hired on enough product recalls, executive transitions and lawsuits to know that these things happen when sleeping and eating are the lowest of priorities. Mental and physical exhaustion is the reason why flights are booked to Paris, Georgia instead of France or how dinner is delivered to your apartment in New York instead of a conference room in Los Angeles. When you’re working those kinds of hours in a high-stakes environment, anything can happen. One minute you’re taking a shortcut to the hotel lobby through the gym and the next thing you know, you almost fall into a swimming pool. Speaking from experience!

I don’t blame whatever overworked and underpaid campaign member called the wrong Four Seasons. I know exactly how that happened. I reserve my bewilderment for the overworked and overpaid executive who realized the mistake and still held the conference.

All that said, I gotta hand it to that person—whoever they are. I mean, respect. Because I have made my fair share of mistakes; I know the taste of crow very well indeed. And while the majority of people I worked with and for have accepted my apologies with grace and, occasionally, a promise to “laugh about it someday,” I have never managed to get them to lean into my manufactured disaster in real-time. Granted, I never tried—but even if I did, I don’t think I’m capable of spinning so hard that my colleagues and superiors not only show up for a conference at the landscaping shop, but they double down on the very idea, citing patriotism, solidarity and the power of small businesses.

I truly commend whoever is responsible. Because this level of engagement and support is just breathtaking.

I know a lot of people also have questions of the landscaping shop. After all, it takes two to tango and the staff at Four Seasons Total Landscaping seemed very willing to have a couple dozen people come and dance in the mulch aisle.

There are many who have pointed out that whoever answered the phone should have clarified that they were not a luxury hotel, but rather a landscaping shop across the street from a crematorium and adjacent to an adult bookstore. And I would agree. They should have said something.

But here’s the thing: I would bet just about anything that they did… eventually. Maybe not on the first call. Maybe not until after the campaign paid a deposit. But at some point, someone stepped in and said, “You do realize we’re not the Four Seasons, right?”

And I believe that because at the end of the day, no one wants every regional news outlet traipsing through the front door.

So why did they do it? What was in it for them? Well. I would imagine that after the long and awkward pause during which the campaign representatives realized they were trying to book a meeting at a garden shop, whoever was on the other end of the line tried to fill the silence with a soft sell on landscaping services. Picture it:

Four Seasons: We are not a hotel.

Trump campaign: …

Four Seasons: We do not do press conferences.

Trump campaign: …

Four Seasons: Our receptionist thought you wanted to rent some plants for an event.

Trump campaign:…

Four Seasons: We’d be happy to help with any landscaping needs you may have!

And so began the bargaining process wherein the Trump campaign could hold a press conference in the parking lot in exchange for a lawn care contract or two at a Trump property.

I shake my head at the very thought. Because any business that takes the Trump team at their word hasn’t been paying very close attention these past few years.

So was this a PR stunt? No. I highly doubt it. A stunt, by design, is meant to capture the attention of the media when there is precious little worthy of discussion. The media was going to show up to a Trump press conference whether it was at the Four Seasons hotel or next to a crematorium. This wasn’t some master strategy so much as stunning incompetence, start to finish. And that’s probably not something team Trump will want to laugh about one day.