Pity the department rebranders

Re: “Federal department rebrands fall flat on Facebook,” July 20

Critics of the rebranding of federal government Facebook pages to use thematic slogans rather than department names are probably unaware of the amount of committee work that went into the changes and that their criticisms may be offensive to the legions of public servants who would have worked diligently over many weeks, or months, to bring about the changes. Attention-grabbing slogans such as “Canada and the World” do not spring forth by magic. As a (happily) retired former federal public servant, perhaps I can shed light on the process that would probably have been involved.

First, the Issue — the need for the changes — would have to be identified, assessed and analyzed. This would likely be undertaken as part of the development of a Departmental Strategic Communications Plan (“the Plan”), in which all the various communications issues (or spin) to be managed would be identified, analyzed, ranked, prioritized, reanalyzed and presented for consideration to a committee of generic, but wise and omniscient, Senior Managers. The first few drafts of the Plan would, naturally, be rejected and sent back for further work. Eventually, however, the Plan would receive approval to be recommended to the Minister’s Office and thence to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). After a few more backand-forth iterations, the Plan would become Official.

Work would then start on each Issue. A Steering Committee of generic, but wise and omniscient, Senior Managers would be struck for each, and Task Groups would be established to look into the sub-components of the Issue. For the rebranding this would include Task Groups to develop the actual slogan, a rollout Communications Strategy, an Implementation Strategy, the development of Talking Points for generic, but wise and omniscient, Senior Managers who might be called upon to explain the Issue, and possibly the development of a QP Note. That’s a note for use by the Minister that puts the Issue into simple terms and includes potted answers to potential awkward questions that the Opposition might shamelessly ask during question period. QP Notes are intended to help the minister appear to know what he or she is talking about. Considerable skill in crafting the Note may be needed to achieve that.

The Slogan Task Force would present its suggestions to the generic, but wise and omniscient, Senior Managers who, in their wisdom, would reject them all and come up with one of their own. This, in turn, would be rejected by one of the boys in short pants in the Minister’s Office, who would come up with one of his own. This part of the process would then be duplicated as it moved up the line to PMO. Eventually a slogan would be Blessed from On High and adopted.

So, ye critics, please be mindful of the intellectual and sheer grafting (and drafting) effort that has gone into this rebranding, and spare a thought for the feelings of all of those people involved. Malcolm Drury, Ottawa