What’s this thing with iron-fisted autocrats and their missiles?
According to the news, a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile (an ICBM) was tested, ‘coincidently,’ around the time President Biden was meeting, in Kyiv, with Ukraine’s President Zelensky.
The missile test apparently failed.
North Korea’s iron-fisted ruler, quite frequently, has missiles blasting off, out over the ocean, heading, ‘coincidently’ in the direction of South Korea and sometimes Japan, and other places.
Maybe testing and firing off missiles is a PR thing, designed to demonstrate iron-fisted rulers’ masculinity? But that’s some really costly PR, if that’s what the rulers have in mind.
Back in 2020, ICBMs were going out the ICBM manufacturers’ door for $95 million… maybe tax included? Considering inflation, over the past couple of years, that cost probably has gone way up, like ICBMs are supposed to do.
But the Russian ICBM seemed to have something go wrong, and one thing about missiles, they probably can’t be towed quickly and easily to the shop for repairs, even if such weapons of war are still under warranty.
So, $95 million, or more… or a whole lot of Russian rubles, at 75.65 rubles to the dollar, as of this past Wednesday… for a missile that was supposed to demonstrate Russia’s military muscle, seemed to be a big flop.
Such money and time spent on a problematic missile test…
Maybe Russian officials will be shouting ‘fake news,’ about the reported flop, like a former American president has been known to do, when things aren’t quite going his way. But regardless, flops can be newsworthy events.
Where’s all the money coming from for multi-million Russian ruble, and North Korean won, missile tests and launches? Someone I know was wondering about that. Who gets stuck paying the bills?
And what about other administrative costs, like having to pay for crisis communications PR support, for instance, to spin some propaganda, when things go haywire?
By the way, the 95th Academy Awards will have crisis communications staff ready, if needed, when the Oscars ceremony is held in March, should any of the stars happen to resort to fisticuffs, or face slapping, like what happened between a couple of stars during the ceremony last year.
No one in the entertainment industry, I’d imagine, wants any kind of flop to occur again during such a big show.
But in the event something like last year should happen, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be fully prepared.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.