Some PR advice for CEOs

It's hard to imagine there are chief executives more inept than BP's Tony Hayward when it comes to securing good press - or at least masking any Marie Antoinette tendencies. But just in case, Slate's Daniel Gross offers three tips:

1)Avoid any activity generally linked with European aristocracy. This includes, but is not limited to: yacht-racing, polo, lavish weddings to first cousins, and spending the weekend collecting rent from tenant farmers.

2)If you must engage in conspicuous consumption, do so in private--and in your home, not at the office. In the age of Twitter, cell phones that double as video cameras, and Web sites that track the movements of private planes, it's very difficult to maintain privacy. The public assumes that CEOs lead posh lives, that they spend more money on food, drink, and entertainment in a week than most people make in the year. But most of us don't really care about this. We just don't want to have it rubbed in our faces at a time when a company is imposing huge costs on us.

3)Conspicuously consume down-market goods in public. Politicians are really good at doing this. They take vacations in national parks, as President Clinton did, and dine at greasy spoons. Use the news cycle and the paparazzi culture to your advantage.