When a scandal breaks, the corporate crisis team springs into action crafting a series of simple sentences to be repeated ad nauseum by the executive chosen for sacrifice on the media altar. The goal is to avoid liability and defuse a public relations firestorm. The problem is that a well-crafted media response often just adds to the noise and destroys the underpinnings of the brand you've worked so hard to establish. Spin is not authentic. A public relations "statement" is not authentic. A response that deviates from your brand is not authentic. And without authenticity, your crisis management strategy is not likely to succeed.

If you're looking for a blueprint in how to authentically respond to criticism or a crisis, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama offered a three-step plan in his recent speech on race in America. In what has been seen as the signature moment of his campaign, Obama properly and authentically answered the media outcry over comments from his former pastor Jeremiah Wright.

In the Old Days of advertising (I'm not even going to use the word branding, because nobody used that word back in the Old Days), everyone knew what "bait and switch" and "false advertising" meant. Good companies did not advertise one thing and then sell another. Respected businesses did not pretend that their product was one thing when it actually was something else. But before the Old Days, back in the Really Old Days, it was one of the Ten Commandments - Thou Shalt Not Lie.

These days, there's a wonderful term bandied about on the net with ever more frequency to cover what Thou Shalt Not Do - astroturfing. Wikipedia says it's "a neologism for formal public relations campaigns in politics and advertising that seek to create the impression of being spontaneous, grassroots behavior. Hence the reference to the artificial grass AstroTurf."

Corporate image is everything. In today's world, you're either a good company or a bad one, and your products will be judged in the same fashion by association. Consumers are savvy as they look at who makes what they buy as much as what they're buying. And the place that most of your consumers are beginning their search is online. Do you have an online brand manager or someone who keeps track of what is said about you in bulletin boards, chat rooms, and blogs?