Note to Tiger Woods: the head-in-the-sand PR techniques of 20 years ago don’t work today. Stop using them.  So come clean, and then ask your fans for forgiveness and the media hounds for privacy.

The PR game changed with Hugh Grant’s 1995 encounter with the LAPD while receiving favors from a Sunset Boulevard prostitute.   His arrest happened a few weeks before the release of “Nine Months“, his first major studio movie release.  Against the advice of many PR experts at the time, Hugh Grant attacked his scandal head on, going on The Tonight Show and telling Jay Leno “I did a bad thing”.  Hugh Grant continues to be a major star 15 years later.

Micheal Phelps had to face the music last year, when videos emerged of him smoking marijuana at a party.  Phelps came forward and apologized for his “bad judgement”.  While his career took a short term hit (no pun intended), he is back and his place in history will be as one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time.  The sponsorship money he lost will eventually come back.  All will be fine.

David Letterman has demonstrated brilliantly how to address scandal in today’s fast-moving media age.  When an extortion attempt threatened to bring his infidelity public, Letterman went on the offensive, apologizing very frankly and directly on the air for his mistakes.   In the wake of his confession, Letterman’s ratings skyrocketed.

The story will come out eventually. That’s simply the nature of modern media. And what comes out in the interim could be more harmful than the reality.

Tiger Woods should take a lesson from Letterman, Phelps, and Grant.  Face the situation head on.  Never say “no comment.”  Admit mistakes, expose yourself as human, and ask for forgiveness and a degree of privacy while you deal with the situation.

In the short term, you might lose some of the $100 million you bagged last year in sponsorship money.  But it will come back to normal.

In the short term, you might feel your brand has suffered.  It has.  But that’s okay.  It will come back to normal.

And in the short term, your personal life might be a living hell.  But with some work, that can come back to normal as well.

The best advice for brands facing controversy and scandal in the digital age is to be engaged.

* Be real.  Be human.  You are more likely to gain sympathy from other real humans, like us.

* Establish a dialogue.  The discussion will happen,with or without you… so why not get involved?

* Don’t leave the media to set the tone.  Get the story out on your terms, like Letterman did.

Hopefully Tiger Woods gets some advice like this from his insiders soon, so that the media can leave his story alone and move on to the next balloon boy, White House party crashers, or John & Kate.

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It was another watershed Hugh Grant moment.

The day after making the unwise decision to storm on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards and steal the microphone from Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech, Kanye West was scheduled to appear on the first episode of the new 10pm Jay Leno Show.

With almost 18 million viewers, it appears the Gods of Timing smiled on Jay Leno once again.

Flashback to 1995. The week before the release of his movie “Nine Months”, Hugh Grant was busted for lewd conduct in a public place when LAPD caught him engaged in the act with prostitute Divine Brown.

Grant was already booked on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Despite urges to cancel, Grant kept the interview. The result was a moment that defined Jay Leno’s show and set the stage for Grant to continue to have a succesful show biz career.

As Grant got comfortable on the couch, Jay turned to him and asked one simple question.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

Grant paused, and then replied “I think you know in life what’s a good thing to do and a bad thing, and I did a bad thing. And there you have it.”

That willingness to take responsibility and accountability allowed audiences to forgive Hugh Grant, and his career wasn’t derailed.

Can the same be said for Kanye West’s apology on Monday night?

Kanye did seem sincere, and was near tears at one point.

But the difference was that Leno had to coax it out of him with a seemingly contrived and somewhat insensitive question about how Kanye’s late mother would have reacted to his actions.

The result will likely be the same. Kanye West will be forgiven and move along with a succesful career.

Being responsible, and responsive, has never been more important.

In ’95 when Hugh Grant had his moment of indiscretion, there was not an internet (at least as we know it today) and definitely no Twitter or blogosphere to cover every breaking story. There was no way for public outrage to be so easily expressed and swayed.

Remember the Tylenol poisoning scandal of 1982? The product was literally killing people and nobody knew why. Instead of telling the world that it wasn’t their fault (and it wasn’t), Tylenol went forward with an aggressive campaign to pull all of their products from stores, hospitals, and clinics.

Even though only Extra Strength Capsules were poisoned, they removed everything with their name on it.

Even though only Chicago residents had died, they removed everything worldwide. No exceptions.

Tylenol held regular press conferences to update their customers and they were present during the police investigation.

Tylenol then took an industry lead in developing tamper-proof packaging and “gel-caps” that were more secure against tampering.

After the scandal, Tylenol dropped from the category leader to a 9% market share of the pain relief market.

Within a year, they were once again the market leader.

To this day, the person who tainted the Tylenol and poisoned 7 people to death was never caught. And to this day, Tylenol once again controls about 35% of the pain relief market in North America.

The lessons of Kanye West, Hugh Grant, and Tylenol are wise to keep in mind when your brand faces a crisis.

* Be transparent – talk honestly about the issues and don’t try and hide behind others.

* Communicate – use the incredible social networking tools at your disposal to talk to your customers.

* Take responsibility – failure is a temporary state. By admitting to mistakes and failures, you actually have the opportunity to gain trust in the long run.

* Take charge – be Tylenol and lead the way in creating systems to prevent future failures.

Here’s an example of taking responsibility from Maple Leaf Foods, a Canadian meat company that was responsible for a tainted meat scandal last year that killed several people.

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The comeback.

Whitney Houston is next in line to try recapture the glory of her 1984 to 1994 run of hits. Her new album “I Look To You” hits stores September 1.

This week in New York I had the privilege of being invited to a star-packed Allen Room at the Time Warner Center to hear the new album in advance, and have her legendary collaborator Clive Davis provide a song-by-song commentary.

Going into the evening, there was obvious skepticism. Was Whitney clean of the drugs she had been rumored to be involved in? Was she clear of the bad-girl image she had gained through her failed marriage to Bobby Brown? Was Whitney ready for the new music sound of 2009?

Musically, the album is very, very good. Collaborations with Alicia Keys, Akon, and R. Kelly have given the songs a decidedly progressive sound without losing the essence of her signature sound. They’ve also managed to avoid over-hipping Whitney Houston and trying to turn her into something she genuinely isn’t. That would have been a fatal mistake.

But the success of Whitney’s comeback isn’t entirely about the music. It rests in the story. Having great product is vital, but without a great story the great product could easily go unnoticed.

The songs on this album each share part of her story. Her fall from grace. Her failed marriage. Her struggles with drugs. Her faith. Her family. With each song she admits her mistakes, takes accountability for them, asks for forgiveness, and moves on confidently.

That’s how you rebuild a brand.

That’s how Hugh Grant overcame his scandalous rendezvous with a prostitute. He went on The Tonight Show and owned up, apologized, and moved on.

That’s how Tylenol recaptured its lead in the pain-reliever market after the 1981 poisoning of the products. They addressed it head on, voluntarily pulled all of their products, developed new tamper-proof packaging, and moved on.

I can’t say with certainty whether Whitney Houston will succeed with her comeback, but I can say that her odds are much better thanks to some very smart brand rebuilding moves.

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