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Attitude and Action

22.03.2023 | Speakers Corner

Das Bild zeigt das Twitter-Logo. Allerdings fliegt der Vogel nicht nach oben, sondern befindet sich im sprichwörtlichen Sinkflug.

Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl once said... you can't govern against the Bild newspaper in Germany.
He then tried to ignore it for a while, but ultimately realized that a high-circulation newspaper like Bild is the proverbial fourth power in a democracy and not just during election campaigns. Which brings us to the subject of the role of the media in a democracy. It is well known that Trump has made no secret of his aversion to the so-called media democracy; why answer questions from journalists if you would rather just put your own view across to the people? And now Elon Musk, whose Twitter press office is now responding to press inquiries to the company with turd emojis, according to Der Spiegel.

You might think it's an April Fool's joke, but you don't really want to laugh, and as a PR agency you don't want to laugh twice. We support press offices in their work as a seismograph and megaphone for the public debate, building transparency, answering media inquiries quickly and thoroughly and sharing relevant information for the public or individual stakeholders. The Edelmann Trustbarometer 2023 has shown that the public increasingly expects business in particular to act ethically and competently. Business should use this comparative advantage over the erosion of trust in politics to support debates with information and “to be a force for moderation and consensus building. It plays an important role in the information ecosystem and must be a source of reliable information. This means that companies need to promote civil discourse and take a strong stance against false sources of information.”

This requires people in press offices and at the top of the company with principles for attitude and action, who are aware of their responsibility and understand and respect the customs of cooperation. Social dividers, on the other hand, who replace press spokespeople with automatically sent turd emojis, reveal an understanding of democracy that no longer differs significantly from that of dictatorial systems. These flatulences, to stay in the picture, only play into the hands of the agitation of already brown contemporaries. Twitter in particular deserves better.

Quelle: HA
Jochen Leufen
Jochen Leufen

In German, there is a saying "Don't quack no opera!" That's a pity, because operas master the loud and the soft, the high and the low notes, plus plenty of drama. The texts in classical productions, on the other hand, could sometimes use a little fine-tuning, thinks Jochen Leufen. He writes here because writing is the ideal way for him to express himself in a lasting way. First you develop an image in your head, then you describe what you see, check whether pitch and message harmonize, and then you press the send button. Curtain. Hopefully applause from the audience. Or mild criticism.

More about Jochen Leufen's vita:


HeadlineAffairs was founded by Jochen Leufen in 2004. Prior to that, he had been employed by the global agency network Ketchum since 1995, most recently in the position of authorized signatory / associate jointly responsible for the management of the Munich office. As Practice Leader Corporate and Practice Leader Technology, he represented the German market in both business areas. In his capacity as Group Manager / Senior Vice President, he had direct personnel responsibility in both practices and was in charge of coordinating all customer projects. Jochen Leufen was also responsible for the development of new products and for the new business strategy, as well as for content-related questions concerning the use of digital media.

Jochen Leufen is an active media trainer and he coordinated the planning and implementation of all media training courses at Ketchum in Germany. One of his main areas of work at Ketchum was directly advising clients in the event of a crisis or developing and training preventive issue and crisis management tactics and measures. Due to his training and previous activities, he was also responsible for public affairs at Ketchum.

Jochen Leufen's consulting experience at Ketchum includes work for ADIG (Allgemeine Deutsche Investment Gesellschaft), AMS (American Management Systems), Bayern Online, the Bavarian State Chancellery, the Bavarian SPD, Dow Chemical, Henkel, High Tech in Bavaria (campaign), IBM, Legoland Deutschland, Navigation Technologies, Microsoft Network, the City of Munich, Vereinsbank, VIAG Interkom, the World Congress on Transport Telematics, and a number of Internet companies such as Expedia, Handelsblatt.Interaktiv, LetsBuyIt, and webmiles.

Before joining Ketchum, Jochen Leufen worked for five years as a PR consultant for the agency wbpr in Munich, primarily supporting association clients in the area of environmental protection & public affairs, but also the Boston Consulting Group or Lufthansa Cargo in matters relating to their repositioning. Prior to that, he worked for one year at the federal office of the F.D.P. in the context of a federal election in Bonn and worked for a member of the Bundestag during his studies.

Jochen Leufen holds a degree in administrative sciences from the University of Konstanz. He is married and father of three children.

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