• by Masha Geller , September 21, 2001

I get a lot of press releases every day. Since most of them are advertising related, they eventually find their way to publication somewhere on MediaPost. Most are interesting, many are not and some are just so infuriating I can't resist a rant.

Take this morning for example. As if we need any more bad news being broadcast over the news wires, The Conference Board, which calls itself a "global business research organization," released the results of their latest poll under the title of "Nearly Half of American Consumers Say Sept. 11 Attacks Will Speed the U.S. Into Recession."

I should have saved myself the aggravation and stopped reading right there, but for some reason I went on. The release said, "53% do not believe these events will trigger recession." So, shouldn't the title have been "More than half of American consumers say attacks WON'T trigger recession?" Granted, it's a tiny difference, but at a time when everyone is trying their best not to crumble under the weight of all that's happened, interpretation of tiny percentages makes a huge difference.

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Moving on, the study found that slightly more than 30% said they or a member of their household would be postponing or canceling plans to travel by airplane because of the September 11 tragedy, and about 20% said they will not be making financial investments. What about the MAJORITY of American consumers that have NO plans to change their travel or investment plans? Isn't that more important?

The customary press release quote followed: according to Lynn Franco, Director of TCB's Consumer Research Center, "While nearly 90% of consumers say they will not cut back on their buying plans, it's important to note that this figure is very likely to fall as widespread layoffs begin to materialize." Franco went on to say that consumers are not likely to help steer the country clear of recession.

Gee, thanks! A plea to all of you researchers out there: Now is not the time to accentuate the negative! Advertisers and TV anchors aren't the only ones who have to be careful of how they word things. I'm a realist to the bone, and the future scares me just as much as the next person, but I dare say this pessimism is not helping anybody. The fact is, American economy is strong enough and Americans are united enough to survive the terror. And survive we will. Research that instead!