Story: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, continued his slightly unusual public relations offensive in America with an opening statement, 'I thank God the Almighty for giving me an opportunity to meet with my friends once again'. Ahmadinejad proceded to recite several verses from the Qur'an, before giving a complete address to the American media.
Buffalo comment: As PR campaigns go, there are few more high profile in world politics than this particular one. President Ahmadinejad is attempting to woo the American media and public, yet one of the key PR messages that needs to be learned from this is that PR campaigns thrive on consistency. Ahmadinejad has previously taken an anti-American stance and therefore whatever he says now, people will always refer back to his previous comments - e.g. 
“We are very suspicious about the role of British forces in perpetrating such terrorist acts" This story can teach companies a great deal about very careful consideration of the message that will be provided to the media at an early stage in a process, and about the possible ramifications of setting out your stall with one position and then attempting to change it.
When commenting to the media, Buffalo will always advise a client that it is important to hold a strong position and not to deviate too far from this, otherwise the inconsistency gets exposed by the media, and a company's positioning becomes fuzzy and unclear.
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